


Team CYAN book 1: Light in the Darkness

by Reaper_the_Phantom_Thief



Series: Team ATMC [5]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Aidan Verde, Alex Xandrite, Alice Storm, Angel Neko, Aran Kuma, Bitter Merlot, Celena Verde, Chris Kaen, Clyde Tori, Connor Verde, Devon Akuma, Goddess Celena, Gretel von Shang, Jade Quartz, Makayla Verde, Masters von Shang, Nya Storm, Paris Yogen, Raven Croft, Rick Caiman, Shade Academy (RWBY), Tyler Jasper, Vacuo (RWBY), Yin Croft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:28:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 36,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28628028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reaper_the_Phantom_Thief/pseuds/Reaper_the_Phantom_Thief
Summary: A story in the point of view of Aidan Verde and Angel Neko Verde's daughter, Celena Verde in her adventure with her team in Shade Academy, as well as a new enemy with some old ones.
Relationships: Oscar Pine/Ruby Rose
Series: Team ATMC [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2092569
Kudos: 1





	1. Recap, the Big Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

In the residence of Aidan Verde and Angel Neko Verde, who have been married for about 18 years, we see Angel and her and Aidan's 16 year old daughter, Celena Verde, cleaning around the house while Aidan is out on another mission. Celena found an open box with a framed photo of her father, Connor Verde, Chris Kaen and Makayla Verde sitting on top of the stuff inside.

Celena: "Hey, Mom. I found a photo of Dad, Uncle Chris and Aunt Makayla but..." Angel walked towards her, while Celena puts the box down and picks up the photo.

Angel: "But what?" She looks at the photo in the her daughters hand.

Celena: "Who's this man in blue with them? I don't think I've ever seen him before?" Angel kinda clams up for a sec, remembering a past conversation she had with her husband.

Enter flashback...

Aidan: "We can't let Celena know of Connor just yet." He looks at a 5 year old Celena playing in the next room.

Angel: "But he's family-"

Aidan: "Family whose only met her once. On the day of her birth. But he just see's her as a way of expanding our bloodline. He's not the same brother I knew when we were kids... He's changed a lot since then. And given the type of person he is, I don't know how good of an influence he'll be for her. I just don't think she's ready to know of him at this moment."

Angel: "You can't seriously think you can keep it secret from her forever, can you? You can tell just from looking at her that she's a smart one. She's gonna figure it out eventually." He continue's to look at his daughter playing with the old Transformers toys she found in the storage closet, seeing how easily she's figuring out how to transform the more complicated ones.

Aidan: *sigh*"Fine. But only when she's 17 do we tell her. Seeing how smart she is now, I feel like she'll be able to handle it when she's grown up. Surely we can keep a secret like that from her for that long."

Angel: "I guess so. I'll try to keep quiet until then..."

Aidan: "Good." He gets a scroll call. He answers it and walks off. "Yellow." She then glances at her daughter with both joy and guilt on her face for keeping quiet about family.

End flashback...

Angel then thinks about weather or not she should tell her. On one hand, she's not 17 yet and that would be breaking her promise. On the other hand, which is the more sound argument, she's only a year away from the specified age, Aidan's not here, and she's got a photo of Connor right in her hand so it's probably best to come clean.

Angel: *sigh*"That's Connor Verde, your fathers younger brother."

Celena: "Dads... brother?"

Angel: "Yes. Your father doesn't like to talk about him much, but he was planning to tell you about him once you were 17. Connor is a man who does care for his families safety but has formed a rivalry with your father and these days he only see's future generations like you merely as a means of further expanding the family bloodline. Aidan also thought Connor might not have been a good influence on you."

Celena: "Is he... bad, or something?"

Angel: "No, not bad, per se. But he does tend to do things... a little differently then Huntsmen. He's not an official Huntsman, he's a wandering warrior. Always out there in the open world. This picture was taken the day they first met after many years."

Celena: "And... how did this little event come to light."

Angel: "Well, you are almost 17 and your fathers not here, sooo... I guess I can tell you this story. But you can't tell him I told you this. He can't know until the specified date. Got it?" She just nods. "Okay. Come on, sit down. It was 18 years ago, while we were still looking for Masters. We found him in Grimm territory and Connor was waiting for your father to show up, he had challenged him to a fight and had won, forcing Aidan to retreat after seeing Masters trapped in a strange crystal that he couldn't break yet. When we got home, General Schnee of Atlas made him a special sword with the power of all 8 Spirit Guardians in the Guardian Bracelets, James Ironwood had previously made. It was with this that your father was able to win in his rematch against Connor and break Masters free of that crystal. He then convinced Masters to come home but that's when the real fight began. A terrible Faunus named Devon Akuma, used both amulets he got from Connor and Aidan to use the power of their fallen father, your grandfather Joe Verde. Only Joe's blood descendants could defeat this power, and so Connor joined Aidan in the fight against this monstrous Devon, which in turn led to Devon's death. Aidan managed to bring both Masters and Connor home to Vacuo, where Masters reunited with his daughter. Connor then took the responsibility of Devon's Guardian Bracelet and continued wandering the world. And that's the whole story."

Celena: "Wow. Who would've thought I'd have an uncle like that?"

Angel: "You've only met him once in your whole life, but that was when you were just born. You've never met him since. He's not really one for casual visits."

Celena: "I see... I wonder... What could he be doing now?"

Angel: "Who knows? All I know is that he can handle himself, just like your father." Meanwhile, a nearby figure outside hidden by the mist of the rain is overhearing their conversation. Speak of the devil, it was Connor himself, wearing a black cloak over his trademark blue cloths from back then.

Connor: "Hmm." With a smirk on his face, his eyes covered by his cloak. He then looked to the sky. "Where ever you are, Aidan, you raised quite the interesting girl..." He turned his back to the house and glanced back to the window, seeing Celena's face. "...and I can't wait, to see what she will be capable of."


	2. Welcome to Shade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

A year later since Mom told me the story of my Uncle Connor and things went by pretty well, and when I turned 17 my Dad retold the same story Mom told and I just pretended it was my first time hearing it for Mom's sake. Not to long afterwards it was time for me to head off to school again, but not just any school, a Huntsmen Academy! Shade Academy, the same school my parents went to, and where Dad's popularity started to skyrocket, and that was when he was still just a student. And now it was my turn! I hope to be just as good as Dad, and be the best Huntress I can be! The airship to Shade is here, which means it's time for me to go.

Aidan: "Looks like your rides here. You doing okay?"

Celena: "Mmhm. Thanks for coming to see me off. I love you guys." You see I'm wearing a blue, skin tight battle suit with black leather boots and gloves and a silver utility belt to hold my weapons and rounds of Dust bullets. I'm also a cat Faunus who ended up with both ears and a tail just like my Mom. I have long black hair in a pony tail that goes down to my mid back along with some bangs over my forehead. My weapons, Senshi, are a pair of pistols that transform into Twin Blades. How it works is that the handles straighten up and the gun muzzles become projectors for blades made from energy Dust, tinted to come out light blue, and I use fire, ice, electric and earth Dust bullets for Senshi's gun form.

Angel: "We love you, Celena. Good luck on the initiation." Just then, another Huntsman comes up to talk with Dad. He's wearing black jeans and a black leather jacket with a dark grey t-shirt that says 'Bloody Hell' in red. He has a silver chain hanging on his left side from his belt and a silver skull pendant on a black string necklace around his neck. He's wearing black leather boots, sunglasses, black fingerless gloves and has white hair.

?: "Hey you! Are the Huntsman named Aidan Verde?" Speaking in a British accent.

Aidan: "Yeah that's me."

Raven: "Ah, good." He takes off his sunglasses and hangs them off the collar of his shirt. Behind them we see red eyes with a nasty scar across his right eye. "My name is Raven Croft. I'm one of the Huntsmen escorting these kids to Shade. Me and some other Huntsmen were asked to look for you and remind you of a meeting you promised Professor Quartz. She wanted this meeting to happen before the new school year started, so I'd suggest you get your ass to Shade right now."

Aidan: "Mind if I catch a ride on this ship? It's going straight to Shade anyways so it'd make my trip go faster."

Raven: "Why the hell not. There's plenty of room, and you know what they say, 'the more the merrier.' Right? C'mon, let's go." He puts his shades back on and heads for the airship.

Celena: "Was it just me, or was that guy kinda creepy..."

Aidan: "Please. I've faced way scarier stuff than him. Besides that, looks like I get to spend a little more time with my girl!" He headlocks me and ruffles with my hair.

Celena: "Oh, c'mon Dad! You know how sensitive my ears are!" Trying to break free until he let's me go. We hear a chuckle from Mom.

Angel: "Well, you two have fun. I'll be back at the house. Take care." She walks off.

Aidan: "C'mon, let's get on board." I grab my bags and we board the ship. As we take off and fly through the air, we can see a magnificent view of Vacuo and some of the area outside of it.

Celena: "Check it out! You can see Oscuro from up here." Oscuro Academy, the combat school I attended until now.

Aidan: "Yep. Soon you're gonna be off to the big leagues. Just be sure to knock 'em dead in the initiation." Then Raven shows up again.

Raven: "Now who's this little missy, hmm?"

Aidan: "This is my daughter, Celena. She'll be starting her first year in Shade this year."

Raven: "Well, what a coincidence. My own little one is on board for the same reason. *whistle* Hey, Yin! Come over here." A girl my age in blue jeans and a black tank top with a red jacket over it. She's wearing black leather boots with heels that stop below the knee and straight blonde hair that stops at her shoulders. She's got a retractable, bladed ice whip hanging off her belt and a silver pendant in the shape of a diamond, as in the gemstone, hanging off her neck on a black string necklace.

Yin: "What's up?" Also speaking in a British accent.

Celena: "Um, hello."

Raven: "This heres my daughter, Yin Croft. She's my pride and joy so I hope you two can get along great."

Aidan: "Why don't we leave them with space to chat. *yawn* Ima go take a nap. Mind waking me when get there, Croft?"

Raven: "Why you little-! You can't just take a nap wherever you want in a place like this!" Their voices fade away as they keep walking away from us. The two of us then glance at each other and try to start conversation.

Yin: "So, your headed for Shade too, eh love?"

Celena: "Uh, yeah. My names Celena. Nice to meet you." I put out my hand for a hand shake but then immediately put it into a fist given the type of girl she seems to be.

Yin: "Yeah, you too." She returns the fist bump. We kept up idle conversation until we land and step off the ship to see Shade in all its glory. Both ours dads step off right behind us.

Aidan: "Welp." As he stretches his arms out. "Ima go meet with Jade. Catch ya later Celena."

Celena: "Love you, Dad!"

Raven: "I better get going to. I've got to help finish preparations for Professor Quartz keynote speech in the auditorium. Why don't you two look around campus until then?" Then he walks off.

Yin: "Ok, sure. We'll do that..." We then hear a yelp and a thud and we see the source of it. We see a set of twin girls nearby, one in black shorts, a red tank top and black sneakers with black hair that's in a single braid. The other in white shorts, a blue tank top and white sneakers with brown hair in two pigtails. Both of them seem to have dual katanas on their backs. The one in red has her swords made from lightning Dust while the one in blue has her swords made from wind Dust. The one in blue is on the ground tripped over her own suitcase.

Red: "See? I told you to watch what you're doing, and you go and trip over your own luggage!"

Blue: "Oh, c'mon! It's not my fault that I forgot I put it down next to this bench!"

Red: "Uh, yeah it is! Seriously, how do you forget something like that."

Blue: "I'm sorry. I'm just so excited! We're finally one step closer to becoming Huntresses!"

Red: *sigh*"Would you calm down. But yeah, I'm right there with you. It feels like combat school took forever." I didn't know what was going on about so I decided to ask what's wrong.

Celena: "Excuse me, but what was that noise. I heard a scream and saw you two."

Red: "Ah, don't worry about it. It's just that someone here is to excited to remember where they put their stuff!"

Blue: "Aw, and here I thought we were about done with that! Look what you did... uuuuh...?"

Celena: "Um, I'm Celena Verde. And this is my friend Yin Croft." Yin just jerks her head up and then back down to say 'what's up.'

Alice: "Celena and Yin, huh. I'm Alice Storm, and this is my sister Nya." Says the girl in blue.

Nya: "Hmm. You know I don't think I've ever seen a Faunus with both ears and a tail." I just scratch the back of my head embarrassed.

Celena: "I get it from my Moms side. She was just like this, but she doesn't know why, though. Meanwhile my dad is human."

Nya: "Whoa, whoa, whoa! A human and a Faunus together!? There's no way that relationship could happen without them driving each other crazy."

Celena: "Ah ah ah! You'd be surprised. My parents are one of the more perfect connections between human and Faunus."

Nya: "Yeah, whatever you say."

Alice: "Anyway... shouldn't we be heading for the auditorium? I think Professor Quartz speech is about to start."

Yin: "Good call, mate. Let's go." The four of us head for the auditorium together. Meanwhile Aidan is in a elevator up to Jade Quartz office and then it stops.

Jade: "Come in." The doors open and he enters. "Well, about time you show up, Mr. Turnabout Terror. And before I have to give my speech too."

Aidan: "Sorry about that, Jade. Not my fault I'm always so busy with missions AND a daughter to take care of!"

Jade: "Speaking of whom. If I recall, young Celena will be joining us in Shade, yes?"

Aidan: "Yeah, and she's already made a friend... kinda? I'm not sure. But yeah, she's going here. What of it?"

Jade: "Nothing in particular. But that's not why I called you here. As you know, I will be starting my retirement after this school year and I must choose a successor for the next Headmaster."

Aidan: "Okay? And what does that have to do with me?" Taking out his flask filled with soda instead of alcohol and starts drinking.

Jade: "I'll be blunt. I want YOU to be my successor." Immediate spit take!

Aidan: *cough, cough* Trying to catch his breath. "Ngh-What!? You want me!? What are you, crazy!?"

Jade: "I thought about it, and I made up my mind. Your the one person I can truly trust with this position."

Aidan: "Oh, c'mon! I-I mean, surely there's someone else who could be a more worthy candidate!"

Jade: "Hm, odd. I would've thought you'd be honored to be selected and yet you reject my offer?"

Aidan: "I mean, yeah, I'm honored, but I know better than anyone that I'm not Headmaster material."

Jade: "Nonsense! You have all the best qualifications in a leader, I mean just think back to your school days with Team ATMC. You were an outstanding leader."

Aidan: "I mean, I guess but-"

Jade: "Aidan!" She got his full attention. *sigh*"Ok look, I'm not retiring until next year so you don't have to answer right away. But I want you to really think about it and make your final decision before the year ends. Understood?" He stays silent for a second.

Aidan: "Understood."

Jade: "Good. Now then, for now I want you to give the lectures on the Guardian Bracelets this year. You're the only one in Team ATMC who hasn't done it in years. I think it's time you show some initiative."

Aidan: "Fine. I guess I could use a break."

Jade: "Excellent. Now then. Won't you join us for the speech." He just follows her down the elevator and to the auditorium.


	3. Balance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

The four of us enter the auditorium, we each take a seat and wait for the speech. Looks like Dad is here too as he's standing on the stage by the curtain like he's on guard duty. We also see Raven guarding a nearby exit. Guess the academies are still being cautious after what happened to Beacon Academy many years ago. About a minute after that, Professor Quartz appears on stage ready to speak.

Jade: "I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." I can see Dad whispering up there.

Aidan: "The same speech your grandfather gave when I attended Beacon." He then steps up to the microphone and gives out further instructions. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." He steps off the stage and we regroup with him.

Celena: "Hey, Dad. What's up?"

Aidan: "Nothing much really. Hm? Who're these two with you?"

Yin: "Nya and Alice."

Twins: "We're the Storm Twins!" Doing an action pose.

Aidan: "Haha! That's cute. Um... Hey, Celena? Can I speak with you in private for a moment?"

Celena: "Huh? Uh, sure..." 'What's gotten into him all of a sudden? He looks a little flustered.' I follow him to an empty classroom. "So what's up?" I take a seat.

Aidan: "It looks like Jade has chosen me to be her successor as Headmaster of Shade Academy." The most shocking expression just crossed my face.

Celena: "What!?"

Aidan: "Aye! Calm down. It won't be for this year though. She's not retiring until next year."

Celena: "And what did you say?"

Aidan: "How worried I was for not being Headmaster material but all she did was bring up what a great leader I was back in my school days. Then she gave me time to think about it and she wants my final decision before the school year ends."*sigh* He drinks from his soda flask. "For once I don't know what to do here..." It pains me to see my Dad like this. But I can't really find the words that might help... well, I guess I could always say this...

Celena: "Well whatever choice you make, I'm sure you'll make the right choice... Like you always do."

Aidan: "Heh. Thanks, Celena." Put away his flask. "Welp, for now that doesn't matter. I'll be teaching the Guardian Bracelets class this year."

Celena: "Wait, what!?"

Aidan: "Every year one member of Team ATMC teaches the students about the Guardian Bracelets, and I haven't done it in years. Guess I better do it otherwise Jade would never let me hear the end of it."

Celena: "Haha. That's true." Later that night I'm in the ballroom in my pajamas of just a blue t-shirt and black sweatpants.

Yin: "Yo." I look up to see Yin in her pajamas of just her black tank top and black mini-shorts. "Having fun by yourself?" She lays next to me.

Celena: "Just collecting my thoughts. Soon we'll be students here. But I'm more concerned about family matters. Professor Quartz will be retiring next year and she's chosen my Dad to take over as Headmaster but he doesn't know what to do. *sigh* And then there's my Uncle Connor. He's not a Huntsman and he only cares about our bloodline expanding and I've never seen him in person. Ah! I just don't know!"

Yin: "Sounds like we've both got issues. Papa's had to raise me by himself since I was 4 after my Mama, Robin Croft, passed away. It's tough when your a Huntsman on missions and you meet a lot of different babysitters."

Celena: "Wow. Sounds tough." We hear the twins coming this way.

Alice: "You think you have family problems?"

Nya: "Try hearing our story." We see Nya's wearing a red t-shirt with a black lightning bolt and black pajama pants with red flame details, while Alice is wearing a blue t-shirt with a white tornado and white pajama pants with blue water details.

Alice: "Our parents, Jack and Mia Storm, are getting a divorce soon and they can't decide who will pay our student loans."

Nya: "Not only that but our Uncle Bob Air is in severe debt because of how much he drinks."

Yin: "Sounds like we all have problems with our families. Although if you ask me, I think Celena here has it worst then all of us."

Alice: "Yeah, I mean, Headmaster? Anyone would be overwhelmed with that kinda responsibility."

Nya: "And a dark hearted uncle? Now that's some heavy stuff."

Yin: *yawn*"I think it might be best if we sleep it off." She heads back to her spot and lies down.

Nya: "She's right. We need to make sure we're ready for initiation tomorrow."

Alice: "Mmhm. See ya tomorrow, Celena." They set up their own spot nearby and lay down. Then I just drift off to sleep. While I'm asleep I hear voices and open my eyes. I see I'm no longer in the ballroom but in a terrifying place full of glowing purple crystals and pools of black ooze, and I'm in my combat gear. Then I hear a girls scream nearby so I dash for it and I see a purple man with curved horns stand face to face with a taller, golden man with branched like antlers and a light blue girl with long hair and a simple dress is on the ground between the two men, clearly scared of the purple one. Are those the Gods of Light and Darkness Dad told me off before? But then, who's that girl between them?

Dark: "Listen here, Brother! Now that we've returned, Celena must chose a side! I insist she join me!" The girl jerks away after he tries to grab her hand, and she runs behind the golden man.

Light: "As you can see, Brother. Celena wishes to be with me. Besides, she is MY daughter, as such she will remain on my side regardless!"

Dark: "Then I'm afraid I have no choice." He then transforms into a large dragon covered in bones, but he's still all purple and his voice gets more sinister. "I will crush you and she'll have no choice but to join me!"

Light: "You're welcome to try." He himself transforms into a more serpentine like dragon with a long main and a deeper voice. The two dragons fly through the air fighting each other. I run for the girl while their busy and try to ask questions.

Celena: "Hey, you there! What's going on!? And why is your name Celena too!?"

G. Celena: "Wait... too...?" We hear a loud crash. It's the Gods struggling in a pile of rubble from a large rock they destroyed.

Light: "You talk about her choosing a side yet your trying to force it on her to join you!"

Dark: "At least I didn't give the typical 'she's my child' argument!" He breaths fire in Lights face to get him off him and they keep fighting.

Celena: "C'mon, let's get somewhere safe."

G. Celena: "No! I can't just leave my family to fight like this!"

Celena: "I know how you feel but we're dealing with all powerful gods here, so we'll end up dead from this if we don't move!"

G. Celena: "But I'm a goddess too! I'll be fine!"

Dark: "It's time we end this, Brother! I hope your ready to lose her!" He slams the God of Light into a nearby mountain from above and the mountain crumbles, sending a large cloud of dust everywhere, blinding us. When it clears we see their back in their humanoid forms, exhausted but the God of Darkness is still standing and the God of Light is on his knees, grabbing his arm in pain. "Pathetic. You're getting slow, old man!" I run for him with Senshi in my hands, ready to fight.

G. Celena: "No, WAIT!" I fire a few rounds of lightning Dust to get his attention, and I got it. He turned his head to see me and I immediately transform Senshi to blade form and swing a few slashes at him until he grabs my right arm and throws me to the side.

Dark: "Mortal, state your name."

Celena: "Wouldn't you like to know!" As I point my gun at him.

Light: "Why is a mortal here?"

G. Celena: "WAIT! Please... stop it-argh!" She drops to her knees in pain.

Celena: "Hey! Are you okay!?"

Dark: "I'll ask one last time: Join MY side. Leave this worthless has been!"

Celena: "Oh, fuck off! Haaaaa!" I slice his arm but it immediately heals. "Oh, come on!" He then pushes me aside.

Dark: "Please. A mortal like you cannot face up to a god."

Light: "I shall not FALL!" A bright flash comes from him and weakens his brother.

Dark: "Argh! Damn you, Brother!"

G. Celena: "Enough!" Everyone just goes silent. "Since you both can't seem to consider how I feel, I shall use all my power to seal you both in the main lakes of your domains for eternity!" She unleashes a wave of energy which makes both gods disappear and I see a purple glow spark for a split second come from the biggest pool in the area.

Celena: "Hey! What are you doing!? You can't just do that to your own family!"

G. Celena: "It's the only way to keep them from fighting. Or at least for as long as I can!"

Celena: "But for eternity!? Don't you think that's going too far!?"

G. Celena: "Too far? Too far!? My uncle should've thought about THAT when he kidnapped me from my father and tried to force me to permanently join his side!" She snapped her fingers and we end up in a wooded area. Where she creates a large tower with a strange symbol on the front door and locks herself in the top room. "Here between their two domains, I shall see to it to continue to keep my seals on their pools of Life and Death for as long as I possibly can! Young, mortal Celena! Return to where you came from and NEVER return!" She zaps me with a ray of energy that makes me feel... woozy... My eyelids feel heavy... and I drift off back to sleep, with that tower being the last thing I see.


	4. Team CYAN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

I wake up to see I'm back in the ballroom in my pajamas and it's morning.

Yin: "Yo." I see her and she's already back in her regular clothes. "Sleep well, Sleeping Beauty?"

Celena: "Uh, yeah, but I just had this crazy dream..."

Yin: "Oh really."

Celena: "Yeah..."

Yin: "Well you can tell me about it later. Right now, you'd better change and get ready for initiation."

Celena: "Oh yeah, heheh, right." Later we're in the locker room preparing our Dust and weaponry. "So, you use an ice whip?"

Yin: "Yep. Old Icicle here can really make a Grimm beg for mercy."

Celena: "Same with me and my Senshi." I pull out my blades and put them back.

Yin: "Nice." We can hear Raven over the intercom.

Raven: "Would all first-year students please report to Shade Gate for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Shade Gate immediately."

Celena: "Looks like yours dads busy."

Yin: "Tell me about it. C'mon, let's go."

Celena: "Right. And good luck out there."

Yin: "Yeah, you too." We arrive at the gate that was mentioned and pay attention to Professor Quartz and my Dad.

Jade: "For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Kogorh Dessert."

Aidan: "Now entering a Huntsmen Academy isn't complete without being in a team of 4. Today, each of you will be put into a team after initiation is over."

Jade: "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Shade. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Dad whispers to himself again.

Aidan: "Yep... She's become just like Ozpin..."

Jade: "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after entering the dessert will be your partner for the next four years. After you've partnered up, make your way to the center of the dessert. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die. You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned pyramid with Vacuo's emblem on it in the center of the field containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to Shades main gate. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" I raise my hand. "Yes, Celena?"

Celena: "How will we be spread out to find our partners randomly?"

Jade: "A very good question, and exactly why there's an airship here. Everyone on board." We all do as she says and we take flight above the Kogorh Dessert. "All students will be jumping out of this ship into the dessert as we're flying over it. Being a dessert there won't be that many options for a landing strategy so every student will be getting a parachute to use. Your partner in this trial will be whomever you make eye contact with after landing. Understood?" Everyone nods and mumbles and gives typical responses like that. "Good. Now, everyone grab a parachute and prepare for drop off." Everyone grabs a parachute and Dad opens the gate. "Now then! On the count of 3, I want everyone to jump out of this ship as we're still going! 1!" We all prepare our parachutes. "2!" We ready ourselves to run and jump. "3!" And we're off! Everyone's going all at once going for a nice skydive. It was pretty fun until we landed. That's when the real fun begins! I start wandering around, encountering a King Taijitu which was a little easy at first with just the first head but when the second head showed up things got challenging. At least until Yin showed up and froze the white head and then sliced it off. I then proceeded to fire earth bullets at the ground creating little stalactites to jab at it to distract it while I slice the black head off with a clean strike.

Yin: "Haha! Nice."

Celena: "Seems like we meet up unexpectedly a lot, huh?"

Yin: "Welp, guess we're stuck together for the next four years. So now what?"

Celena: "Guess we head for the center."

Yin: "And to which pyramid in the center? there are tons of them."

Celena: "Jade said that the pyramid we're looking for has Vacuo's emblem on it."

Yin: "Ok, that helps. Let's roll!" Meanwhile the Storm Twins have already paired up and are facing a giant Deathstalker. Alice blinding it with tornados and Nya damaging it with lightning strikes. And for the grand finale their trademark Thunder Storm technique: Double Storm Swift Strike, where they each swap one sword so that both twins wield a wind and a lightning blade. They use the wind blades to create storm clouds to float above it and then use the lightning blades to come down on it with an X strike infused with a lightning bolt and once the Grimm disappears they give each other back their swords and make their way for the pyramid.

Alice: "I hope Celena and Yin are okay."

Nya: "Relax. Just like us they're the daughters of world famous Huntsmen. They'll be fine."

Alice: "I guess so." They continue beelining for the center. Meanwhile me and Yin finally make it to the pyramids and find the right one. Inside we find a bunch of... chess pieces?

Yin: "Ugh! Man, I hate chess."

Celena: "Relax. We're not here to play, we're here to collect. They must be using these as the relics."

Yin: "Then I guess we better pick one." Outside the Storm Twins have made it and are on their way to entering until a giant vulture type Grimm called the Mehe Suti appears. Inside I suggest we grab the black rook and go. "But there are two of them. Do we gotta take a specific one?"

Celena: "No, I remember my Dad telling me about his initiation and it was just like this with the chess pieces. When two pairs grab the same piece they're made into a full team for all four years here."

Yin: "Ok, cool. We get along well with the twins so why don't we wait for 'em and have 'em take the other black castle."

Celena: "First, it's called a rook. Second, that's a great idea." Thats when we hear a large thud. We run outside to investigate and we see the twins fighting a Mehe Suti.

Yin: "Speak of the devil."

Celena: "Oh great. Thats a Mehe Suti. C'mon, we gotta help!" We draw our weapons and go for it. I fire some lightning rounds while Yin uses her whips reach to strike it.

Nya: "About time someone shows up!"

Alice: "And it's someone we know! Win-win!"

Celena: "You guys, that pyramid over there is our target. You two head inside and grab a relic. We'll hold it off. Oh, and make sure you grab the black rook. That may be our chance to be on the same team."

Alice: "Oh, cool!"

Nya: "Black rook?"

Yin: "The relics are chess pieces."

Twins: "Ah."

Celena: "It's circling back! Go!" We split and continue fighting. I fire a barrage of fire bullets to try and shed some of its feathers off while Yin keeps striking at it with Icicles blade. We hear rumbling and see a giant Deathstalker coming our way.

Yin: "Oh, c'mon!" She's puts her attention on the Deathstalker while I keep on the Mehe Suti. The next thing I know a lightning bolt hits the Mehe Suti in the back which makes it fly off and then a tornado blinds the Deathstalker. Then I notice the twins coming this way.

Nya: "We got the piece you told us."

Alice: "So I guess we're done here?"

Celena: "Yep. Now we just need to find the main gate." I didn't even notice Yin rush up to the top of a pyramid to get a good view.

Yin: "Found it! It's east of here." She comes down.

Celena: "Then lets get out of here before this heat gets to us." We make a run for it and the Mehe Suti is chasing us. We get close until another King Taijitu notices us and blocks the gate when we get there. That's when the Deathstalker from earlier shows up.

Nya: "We're surrounded!" We all draw our weapons.

Celena: "Twins, you guys deal with the Taijitu. Yin and I will face the Deathstalker."

Yin: "What about bird brain." We see it's just circling the area.

Celena: "It can wait. Let's go!" The twins both handle a different head until they use another special technique: Double Storm V Slash where Alice uses her wind to put the heads in position so Nya can cut them off with a V slash of lightning bolts. Meanwhile we're constantly attacking and avoiding its tail and pincers until Yin grabs it's tail with her whip and pulls it down and then I jump up and drop kick the stinger to get it stuck in the ground and then slice it off and while the Deathstalkers writhing in pain, Yin gives it a clean slice. Nows all that's left is the Mehe Suti. The twins try to bring it down until I get an idea. "Yin! Give me a boost." She nods and throws me the other end of her whip and spun me a few times before a let go and launched myself at it. "Time to show you my power!" The perfect time to use my Semblance: manipulation of light. I can even use it to make myself into a streak of light... "Trying to escape by blade?!" ...and use it to create a barrage of rapid slashes. "Walk forth to the ever approaching moonrise..." I land and walk away and it lands behind me. "...Distant Frontier!" The moment it hits the ground it splits into a bunch of pieces and evaporates. I put my blades away and the others are in complete shock.

Yin: "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the heck was that!?"

Alice: "You were, like, all over the place!"

Nya: "And the way it ended seemed WAY too perfectly timed!"

Celena: "Hey, everyone's gotta have some special finisher."

Nya: "Well then you should see our Double Storm Swift Strike."

Alice: "You already saw our Double Storm V Slash."

Yin: "Alright, alright, enough about finisher moves. Let's just get inside before we're attacked again." We all nod and run for the gate. Later on is the final ceremony for the team creations.

Jade: "And finally: Celena Verde, Yin Croft, Alice Storm and Nya Storm. The four of you retrieved the black rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CYAN. Led by... Celena Verde!" I can see my Dad smiling at me showing how proud he is. I'm sure Mom would be proud too. Team CYAN... I like the sound of that. And I promise I will be the best leader I can be.


	5. Project Guardian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

Today's our first day of school and we're starting out in the classroom of Professor Velvet Scarlatina teaching Faunus history... Ok I wasn't expecting HISTORY to be my first subject on my first day.

Velvet: "Now, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution-more popularly known as the Faunus War-humankind was quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population right here in the continent of Menagerie. Now I understand none of this interests you but trust me, the more you learn about this the more you'll know how to handle any repercussions here in the present. The fallen terrorist organization formerly known as the White Fang is the biggest example of this." Yin whispers to me.

Yin: "Hey, you know anything about that?"

Celena: "I only know of their actions from my Dads story of the fall of Beacon. Now, shush, I'm trying to listen."

Velvet: "Now here's a quick question: what do most scholars theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the war?" Nya raises her hand. "Yes?"

Nya: "The battle at Fort Castle."

Velvet: "Correct. Now, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" This one is just too easy for Faunus like me being a cat so I go ahead and raise my hand seeing as no one else seems to know. "Ah, young Celena. Surely a fellow Faunus like you should know this one."

Celena: "Of course, Professor Scarlatina, and the answer is simple: night vision. Many types of Faunus, such as cats like me, are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark. This is because certain attributes from our Faunus heritage can enhance some of our senses or natural abilities that don't require Aura and depending on the enhancement, it can be used to aid your own unique abilities or your Semblance. And as for the Faunus' advantage in the war, General Lagune was inexperienced with Faunus capabilities, and thus made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His forces were outmatched, and the general was captured thanks to his blunder."

Velvet: "Indeed. Very impressive, Celena. I can already tell you'll be a great student. No. A great Huntress!"

Student: "Hmph! Showoff!" Trying to hide what he said but both mine and Velvet's ear twitched indicating that we heard him.

Velvet: "Hey! I heard that! I will not tolerate disrespect! Faunus like myself were terribly discriminated years ago just simply for BEING Faunus. Ngh! I shutter just from remembering. Ahem! Moving on! The point is, while Faunus are still discriminated by some humans, that is only a small problem compared to many years ago." Then the bell rings. "Okay, that's enough for today students, but before you go I have a homework assignment for you all. I want all of you to write an essay about the articles of pages 1-20 in your Faunus History textbooks. I want that essay on my desk by next class tomorrow. I know it's a short deadline, but I'm only doing this for the good of your educations. Class dismissed." We all leave our seats and head out.

Yin: "Ugh! Man! Homework on our first day? What a drag."

Celena: "I would agree, but this isn't like combat school. We're in the big leagues now so we gotta deal with tougher challenges."

Alice: "Speak for yourself! Nya's the smart one of us! I know I'm gonna flunk this!"

Nya: "Hey, hey, calm down. I'm sure you'll be fine. It's only 20 pages, how bad can it be?"

Alice: *sigh*"I guess."

Celena: "C'mon, let's get to our next class." Meanwhile, in Jades office. We see she's having a video chat with the other three Headmasters. Oscar Pine of Beacon. Winter Schnee of Atlas. And Sage Ayana of Haven

Oscar: "And your sure it's nothing manmade?"

Winter: "Positive. The Paladins scans of the glyph over the Pool of Death have picked up a more magical energy then technological."

Sage: "The same can be said about the reading at the Pool of Life too."

Jade: "Looking at the footage of both pools, the glyphs have to be done by the exact same entity, whatever that may be."

Oscar: "It definitely doesn't look like Salem's emblem. It's impossible too."

Sage: "I would think it'd be red if it was. And besides if it was Salem's emblem, couldn't it just be one of her old associates?"

Oscar: "You do have a point."

Winter: "Enough! It's not Salem and that's not what matters. What matters is figuring out who did this!"

Jade: "Winters right. Hm. Looking at the way they're positioned over the pools the emblems kind of look like seals."

Sage: "Seals? For what though?"

Oscar: "And why for both pools? The Pool of Death I understand, but why the Pool of Life? It doesn't make any sense!"

Winter: *sigh*"Looks like we've got no choice. But... I feel like the only ones capable of investigating something like this are the Guardian Bearers. Looks like this is your problem now, Quartz. The Guardian Bearer case was under your authority so I leave this to you. I'll see what I can do on my end."

Oscar: "I'll look through Ozpin's old archives. Hopefully he has something about that emblem that could be useful."

Sage: "I'm not sure how I can help but I'll see what I can do regardless."

Jade: "Hm. Jade Quartz, over and out." All the screens shut off. "I'll call them all after school hours today." Back in Aidan's classroom after schools over. He is currently going over his first lecture in a few days. He then hears an alarm on his scroll labeled 'Project Guardian' and he understands full well what that mean. He also knows it'll take a minute for the others to get here so he'll just have to wait till then. He returns to his work and finishes to head home. We cut to Tyler escorting an artifact to the museum in Menagerie and he hears his alarm after it's in its case. Cut to Makayla and Chris sparing in an open field outside the local neighborhood in Vale and they hear their alarms when they take a break. Cut to Paris meditating on top of the highest mountain next to Atlas and he hears his alarm go off while concentrating. Cut to Masters filing his paper work in Signal Academy until his alarm goes off. Cut to Angel shopping in the Vacuo market when her alarm goes off. Finally, we cut to Connor overseeing Mistral atop a nearby mountain and he hears his alarm. He checks his scroll and isn't the least bit surprised to see it, so he immediately leaves the mountain after putting it away.


	6. Guardian Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

Not too long after the alarm was set, all the Guardian Bearers made their way to Shade. I'm walking toward the class building when I see two figures walking towards the main hall where the Headmasters office is.

Celena: "Aunt Makayla! Uncle Chris!" They turn to see me coming towards them.

Makayla: "Celena!"

Chris: "Whats up, slim?"

Celena: "Just on my way to class. What are you guys doing here?" They just stay silent for a second.

Chris: "Oh, um... we were-"

Aidan: "They were called in by the Headmaster." I turn to see Dad walk up with a rather serious look on his face. "Long time no see."

Chris: "Same."

Makayla: "Well, you seem to be doing fine as always."

Aidan: "Yeah, yeah. C'mon. We don't wanna keep Jade waiting. Celena, you better get to class. Isn't it about to start."

Celena: "Ah, crap! You're right! I'll see you later." I run off to class.

Chris: "See ya!"

Aidan: "C'mon, let's go."

Makayla: "Doesn't walking through the courtyard take you back to when we first arrived at Beacon. We were so excited about being close to being Huntsmen back then."

Chris: "Yep. Ah, those were the days."

Makayla: "So why are we going to Jade now? The others aren't even here yet."

Aidan: "For now we're just waiting here at the main hall entrance." That's when Angel walks up.

Angel: "Guess this makes half the team. To think we'd be called out like this."

Tyler: "Tell me about it." We see Tyler Jasper and Paris Yogen walk up together.

Paris: "I anticipated this someday. It's just been much longer than I thought."

Masters: "Understandably." We turn to see Masters come up next. "Never thought I'd be out in the field again."

Gretel: "And that's why I'M here!" We see Gretel walk up to them a little more serious than normal.

Masters: "Gretel? What are you doing here? I thought you were back in Vale."

Gretel: "I followed you knowing this was Guardian business. Why else would you leave for Vacuo all of a sudden?"

Masters: "And why is that so concerning to you?"

Gretel: "Because it's been years since then. Your body can't take it. I'm not letting you use up your energy like this."

Masters: "Gretel, the Guardian Bracelet for Corbenik is my responsibility and mine alone. I can't let you take that kind of-"

Gretel: "No! I already made up my mind. I'm taking Corbenik from now on and that's final!" A moment of silence fills the air until...

Masters: "Heh. You really know how to twist my arm. Heheh. I'll admit, I'm not exactly the fighter I use to be. Very well..." He takes off his Bracelet and hands it to her. "Are you sure you can handle it, though? Trying to adjust to controlling it isn't easy."

Gretel: "Don't worry. I've got this." As she puts it on and it reacts to her Aura, a gold yellow color. "Besides, my Semblance helped me see this happening to me."

Masters: "Heheh. I figured as much. But I'll still be here to give guidance. I'm still a member of Project Guardian."

Aidan: "Ok, so Masters is being replaced in the field and we've got one more member to wait for."

Connor: "Wait no more." The blue coated man finally shows up. "Foolishness letting an amateur take responsibility of such an important item. Though, I suppose I can understand the reasoning behind it."

Aidan: "Good of you to actually show up."

Connor: "Let's just get this over with." They all head inside and up to Jade's office.

Jade: "Come in." We all enter after reaching the top of the elevator. "Gretel. I'm surprised to see you here."

Masters: "She will be taking my place as Corbenik's bearer."

Jade: "I see... Well, I suppose it had to happen eventually."

Connor: "Enough. Cut to the chase already."

Jade: "As pleasant as ever I see. Now then, everyone please direct your attention to this glyph." A large hologram screen appears. "A few days ago this glyph appeared over the pools of Life and Death. Atlas Academies Headmaster, General Winter Schnee, sent out Atlesian Paladins to both pools and their scans show that their not technological. Their energy signature is more magical, almost similar to that of the Maidens. However the emblem in the glyph is currently unknown. We believe that finding the meaning behind this emblem will help us determine the source and the reason of their existence. That is why Beacon Academies Headmaster, Oscar Pine, is looking through my grandfathers archives for answers. Hopefully his extensive knowledge can shed some light on this. As for their purpose, my theory is that these glyphs are meant to serve as seals of some kind, but as I said, it's just a theory for now, and it's solely based on their positioning above the pools."

Connor: "Yes. They certainly seem to give that aura."

Tyler: "But if that's true, then why seal both pools? The Pool of Death I understand, as seals are usually meant to keep things in, but then why put a seal on the Pool of Life? What could possibly be in that pool that requires to stay in there."

Masters: "Hmm?"

Aidan: "Masters? What's wrong?"

Masters: "That symbol... I feel like I've seen that symbol somewhere before, but I can't seem to remember where from..."

Chris: "Well, we can worry about that later. What's the mission here?"

Jade: "General Schnee believes you all are the only ones capable of investigating these glyphs and obtaining good results. We'll split the team in half to investigate both pools. Aidan, Connor, Chris and Makayla. You four will investigate the Pool of Death in the God of Darknesses domain. Aidan will be in charge here. Gretel, Angel, Tyler and Paris will investigate the Pool of Life. Gretel, I leave you in charge. Masters, I would like you to remain here to aid me in my own investigation."

Masters: "Very well."

Jade: "The rest of you are dismissed. I will have airships ready for transport tomorrow, so make sure your well rested." But then Gretel remembered something

Gretel: "Oh yeah, I don't know if it's related to this but I thought I should bring it up. I've had a rather strange prediction recently."

Aidan: "A prophecy?"'That's right, Gretel's Semblance is that she can see certain events in the future that relate to herself. She also has a habit of writing her visions in poem form, just like her vision many years ago: 'Unknown where the Cursed Wave was born… After the stars doth cross the heavens, the sky in the East doth darken and air doth fill with mourning. From the chosen land beyond the forest, a sign of the wave comes. Riding the wake is Skeith, the Terror of Death, to drown all that stands. Mirage of Deceit, Innis, Betray all with the flawed image, and did aid the Wave. And by the Power of Magus, a drop from the Wave doth reach the heavens, and creates a new Wave. With the Wave, Fidchell, the power to tell the dark future, hope darkens, sadness and despair rule. Gorre schemes when swallowed by the Cursed Wave. Macha seduces with the sweet trap. Wave reaches the Pinnacle, and escape none can. Tarvos still remains with more cruelty to punish and destroy. And with the turbulent destruction after the Wave. Only a void remains. From deep within the void arrives Corbenik. Perhaps then the Wave is just a beginning as well.' This was her poem describing the 8 Spirit Guardians as they were related to her coma recovery.'

Gretel: "I haven't written a poem on it yet as I don't completely understand it yet, but I can still describe what happened. Where all 8 of us Guardian Bearers are together with a ninth party, our bracelets reacted to them and their energy combined to give the person a new power while still allowing us to use our Guardians. As for who the ninth person is, I have no idea. It was a little dark so I couldn't tell. That prophecy is one step closer to coming true since I'm now Corbenik's user, which is why I saw this vision. I can only see things relating to me."

Jade: "Hmm... a person gaining power from the 8 bracelets together in the same room. Interesting."

Masters: "But why would the bracelets react to someone like that?"

Gretel: "That's something we'll need to figure out."

Jade: "Well, we can leave that for later. Once again: you are dismissed." We all nod and head out, aside from Masters who will be aiding Jade.

Makayla: "Seals over the pools? What could this mean?"

Paris: "I do not know, but I'm sure we'll find out." Cut to a dark room with two men: one standing in the light working on machinery, the other hiding in the shadows. We don't know who the shadowed man is yet but the one in the light is well known as... Bitter Merlot.

?: "And that's about all I could get from Quartz' talk with the other Headmasters. What do you make of it, Doc?"

Bitter: "Unknown, magic seals over two of the most powerful sources of energy in all of Remnant? This is indeed a rather interesting find."

?: "There's something else I should tell you: Project Guardian is getting involved in this as well."

Bitter: "Well then, I say it's time I get on with my own Project Demon. But first, we'll need to gather an old acquaintance. One I resurrected not to long after he passed away." He pulls out his scroll to alarm this 'acquaintance'. "I looked over an old case of my fathers and thought to recreate the machine he used to resurrect himself."

?: "Couldn't you just use that to bring back your Pa or even your brother?"

Bitter: "Sadly this machine requires a DNA sample and all DNA samples of both my father and my brother are gone on account of how long it's been since their deaths. But no matter, I've found plenty of fresh DNA samples of this subject at the scene of his death." We cut to the forest edge of Vale where a shadowy figure is lurking, but leaves after checking his scroll when an alarm went off labeled 'Merlot Twin calling... the Fiery Lion.'


	7. Team DARC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

I go to see my dad in his classroom after school hours. When I enter I see him preparing supplies.

Celena: "Hey, dad. I just wanted to drop by and... Hm? What's going on?"

Aidan: "Just making sure I'm ready."

Celena: "Ready for what?"

Aidan: "My next mission. What else?"

Celena: "But I thought you took the teaching position here to take a break from fighting in the field."

Aidan: "Yeah, well, it's my job to follow orders and Jade thinks me and the others are the only ones capable for the mission."

Celena: "Others?"

Aidan: "Ok, look. It's a Project Guardian thing, so I'm not allowed to say anymore." He starts drinking from his soda flask.

Celena: "You know you could've just led with that."

Aidan: *sigh*"Look, I've had a long day so I need to go. We leave tomorrow and we'll be gone all weekend so I better rest up. Night, Celena." He grabs his bag and makes his exit. Later on in our dorm room, I tell the others about what happened.

Alice: "Project Guardian? I don't think I've ever heard of it."

Nya: "Me neither and I study everything about the Huntsmen system."

Celena: "Of course you've never heard of it. It's a secret project under Headmaster Quartz' authority. I'm the only one outside of the official Huntsmen system who knows about it because my dad would tell me stories of their adventures. To put it bluntly, a total of eight Huntsmen have a special bracelet that make them different from the other Huntsmen and Project Guardian is where those eight are called in to handle any problems that only their powers can handle. Only a handful of other Huntsmen know about the project. Specifically: the other Headmasters and Atlas' previous Headmaster slash military general: James Ironwood."

Yin: "Okay, and what do they do?"

Celena: "I don't know how it works but I'm remember Dad saying that these bracelets connect to their Aura and replace its ability to heal with the ability to summon something called a Spirit Guardian, which is hard to explain so I'm not gonna get into it, but the point is that's what it is."

Nya: "Well then I don't know why your bringing this up with us because from the sound of it, this seems to be some classified stuff that doesn't concern us. So why're you so interested?"

Celena: "I just have this strange feeling that this concerns me in some way. I just don't know why?"

Yin: "So basically, you wanna follow these guys to where ever it is their going and find out what there up to?"

Celena: "I guess that's one way of putting it."

Nya: "I don't know. I think this may be a bad idea."

Alice: "Yeah but think about it! We'd be living the Huntsmen life for real! I say we do it!"

Yin: "Celena's the leader anyway, so we should do it if she's up for it."

Celena: "I've never felt like this before so I wanna find out what this is all about."

Nya: *sigh*"Fine. But I'm only going to keep Alice in check."

Alice: "Hey! I'm not some little baby who needs a sitter!"

Nya: "See what I mean?"

Celena: "Regardless, first we need to find a way to follow them."

Nya: "Mom was a great engineer and gave us a car that can fly with the push of a button. I thought I'd make it more useful for a mission so I installed a GPS and a cloak device." She pulls out a little gadget. "We just need to stick this on the airship they take and track them down from the car. We can then follow them with the car hidden from them."

Yin: "But the base will pick us up on a radar in the air."

Alice: "Simple. We go by ground until we get out of the radars range and THEN we go airborne."

Celena: "Well that'll make things easier. And now that we have our plan, *yawn* let's get some shut eye for said plan tomorrow." We all agree, change into our pajamas and head for bed. Cut to Merlot's lab again and we see he's speaking with four figures. One of them being... the lion tailed Faunus: Devon Akuma wearing his old blue hoodie with tan cargo pants. The other three are Devon's old teammates in Team DARC from his school years in Shade before Aidan ran him into hiding. The first being Aran Kuma, a brown haired bear type Faunus with a large battle axe that transforms into a flame thrower wearing a black hoodie with blue jeans whose bear traits mean animal like strength and claws in his nails. The second being Rick Caiman, a blonde haired alligator type Faunus with a tail and scaly skin as well as gills, wearing a red hoodie with black jeans wielding a broadsword that transforms into a rocket launcher. The last one being Clyde Tori, a white haired vulture type Faunus with black feathered wings wielding dual long barreled revolvers bayoneted with serrated hatchet blades wearing a white hoodie with gray cargo pants. All of them have rips and tears in their clothing and messy hair and black tennis shoes.

Devon: "So, what's this all about, Merlot?"

Bitter: "I'm glad you asked. As of now, Project Guardian is currently reforming to investigate mysterious glyphs in the terrains of the Gods of Light and Darkness. I've gathered you here to start up my own project."

Rick: "What kind of project?"

Bitter: "A project of my own powerful being summoners." He pulls out a tray of four black bracelets, with a black bracelet of the same design on his own wrist in view.

Aran: "Hold on! I thought there were only eight Guardian Bracelets, how do you have some right there?"

Bitter: "A very good question, my friend. You see these aren't Guardian Bracelets. These are Demon Bracelets. Many years ago, when the guardian bearer, Masters von Shang, was in cahoots with me he let me borrow one of the stolen bracelets to study and while it wasn't a full analysis, it was certainly enough data that was useful to know. I used this data to create these, along with some of my own alterations."

Clyde: "Which are?"

Bitter: "Rather than switch the Auras ability to heal to summon a guardian, these bracelets tap into the hidden dark side of your soul to summon an Inner Demon, the manifestation of your negativity."

Aran: "But wouldn't that just attract more Grimm than needed?"

Bitter: "Yes, but there is a bonus. When the demon is summoned, you will have control over the Grimm's mind to keep them away unless you need them in battle. Now, each of you take a bracelet and prepare yourselves for further instructions later."

Devon: "Hell yeah! This'll make up for losing Tarvos!" As he puts on his bracelet and it reacts to his Aura. "Just you wait, Turnabout Terror! I'll be coming for you!"


	8. Domain of Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

The next morning Project Guardian load their supplies aboard two airships. I hide behind a nearby airship to watch when they'll take off after sneaking behind it using my Semblance to travel as a steak of light. I use my Scroll to contact the others waiting at the town entrance.

Celena: "We've got a problem. Their boarding two airships. We didn't plan for this."

Nya: "Relax. I was cautious about letting you handle my gear so I gave you multiple tracking devices in case you lost one. Just stick one on each of them."

Celena: "You know you can trust me with stuff like this being the leader, right?"

Alice: "Ah, she's always been this way. Despite having my license, she doesn't trust me to drive the hover car."

Nya: "You're not as capable as I am to use this equipment!"

Celena: "Quiet! We're trying NOT to get caught!" Whisper screaming.

Yin: "Oh boy..."

Celena: "Oh! They're about to board! Gotta run." I hang up and wisp past the ships after the doors close, sticking the devices on them as quick as I can where their not noticeable. I quickly travel to the city entrance and meet with the others. "And it's done." I get in the car. We see the airships fly off overhead.

Nya: "Alright. They're on the move. So far both ships are going the same direction." We start driving to not lose them until we're out of radar range to start flying so we can catch up with them and then go invisible. "We'll keep following them like this until they separate. Once they do that we'll have to follow one, drop off half the team and then quickly go after the other."

Celena: "I say me and a Storm Twin go after one while Yin and the other twin go after the other."

Alice: "If we're going to do that Nya and I will have to switch one of our swords so we both will have a wind and lightning blade. We always do that whenever we split up."

Nya: "We won't be able to do that in the car, I'm driving. And we won't have time to do that when we drop off one half."

Celena: "Regardless. I'll go with Alice while Nya goes with Yin."

Yin: "Sure. Why not?"

Alice: "Alright! Let's do this!"

Nya: "They seem to be going quite a distance so it'll be a while before we reach our destination."

Alice: "Gah! Why you gotta be such a buzzkill?"

Nya: "Oh shut up."

Yin: "This is gonna be a long trip..."

Celena: "Yep..." Moments later the airships reach a certain point and split up.

Yin: "So, which do we follow?"

Celena: "I'll leave it to Nya."

Nya: "Then were going left." We follow the left airship and end up in a dark place. Nya gets close to the ground for me and Alice to hop off and hide. They then leave as fast as they can to catch up with the other ship. "Alright... Hyper speed: full throttle!" They take off.

Alice: "Guess I'm stuck with both wind blades."

Celena: "Eh. We'll pull through." We see the airship land a ways off. "C'mon, let's go." We find the airship parked a little ways away from the largest pool here. Dad, Uncle Chris, Aunt Makayla and a man in blue are the only ones here... is that... my Uncle Connor?

Connor: "So this is it, huh?"

Chris: "It would seem so."

Makayla: "The pool seems much bigger in person."

Aidan: "Alright. Let's get started." His Aura glowed. "C'mon... C'mon... I'm Right Here! Skeeeeiiiiith!" A large green demon looking creature with a scythe on its back appeared and puts it's focused on the pool. "With our Guardians power, we might be able to find something out."

Connor: "Or at the very least, Skeith and Tarvos out of our group." He summons his Guardian and does the same.

Aidan: "You two keep guard. We don't want any surprises." We cut to the Pool of Life where Nya parks the car a little ways away from the airship. Nya and Yin head into the domain of light and hide to spy on the remaining members of Project Guardian: Angel, Gretel, Paris and Tyler.

Paris: "Fidchell and Innis should be able to see through the crest power." He summoned Fidchell while Angel summoned Innis and they focus on the pool.

Tyler: "Gretel and I will stay on guard."

Yin: "I'm guessing those are the Spirit Guardians Celena spoke of?"

Nya: "Most likely. It looks like they're analyzing that pool."

Yin: "Think we can contact Celena about our results?"

Nya: "No. There seems to be no signal in this area. Must be an area that non of the CCT towers can reach."

Yin: "Great..." Cut back to domain of darkness.

Alice: "Great, no service..."

Celena: "So much for sharing results with the others."

Alice: "So that's a Spirit Guardian?"

Celena: "Yep. Although... this is honestly my first time seeing it in person."

Alice: "Man. This is wicked cool!"

Celena: "Although... that's not what's got my attention. It's that crest over the pool. I feel like I've seen that symbol before..." I get a quick flash in my mind to the front door of that tower in my dream the other night and remember that symbol. *gasp*"That's right! This place... I recognize this place. It's the domain of the God of Darkness that created Remnant with his older brother, the God of Light."

Alice: "You mean in that dream you had?"

Celena: "You don't think..?" We get cut off by the noise of a loud explosion. The Guardian Bearers look off to the distance to see what it was. Cut to the domain of light.

Yin: "Y'know, looking at that crest, it kinda reminds me of what Celena told us about in her dream."

Nya: "You mean how a goddess with her name sealed her family in the pools of they're homes?"

Yin: "Yeah... Wait! You don't think...?" An explosion is heard from the other side of the area. The Guardian Bearers turn their attention to it and we see Rick and Clyde emerge from the smoke cloud.

Gretel: "What the-!?"

Angel: "Oh no..."

Clyde: "Well well well, look at what we have here. Never thought we'd see you again pussy cat!" Clearly talking to Angel.

Rick: "It really has been a long time, huh?"

Tyler: "Angel, do you know these two?" Pointing his gun at them.

Angel: "Remember Devon Akuma from back then? Those are Clyde Tori and Rick Caiman from his old school Team DARC. I remember them from when I was their bully victim."

Gretel: "Those bastards!" Drawing her shield. Rick then fires his rocket launcher but that was blocked by Gretel increasing her shield size and behind the resulting smoke Paris cast Vak Zas, a Fire Art where fire balls fly towards them. Rick jumps to the side while Clyde takes flight and fires at them from above.

Tyler: "Take cover!" Everyone scrambles to avoid his gun fire. Allowing Rick to get back up and fire again. This time he fires upwards so the rockets come down on them.

Gretel: "Incoming!" Tyler's Aura glows.

Tyler: "Magus!" The rockets hit and when the smoke clears we see Magus brought out his Leaf Shield.

Clyde: "Eat ground you bastards!" He tried to dive attack them but was stopped by Paris casting Zan Rom, a Wind Art that creates a tornado which knocks him aside. Rick then brings out the broadsword and attacks. He's blocked and pushed back by Gretel's shield.

Rick: "Damnit! Guess I gotta bring out the big guns!" His Aura glows a bloody red with black mist surrounding him. "Time to chow down. Come... Oswald!" A large purple spider surround by a black bubbly aura appears.

Gretel: "The heck!?"

Paris: "Is that a Spirit Guardian!?"

Angel: "No! This power doesn't feel the same as ours! I sense a more negative power in this thing!" The spider attacks but was stopped.

Gretel: "Corbenik!" Corbenik appears and blocks Oswald's attack with his cannon arm.

Tyler: "If it's not a Guardian then what the hell is it!?"

Angel: "How should I know!? This is the first time I've felt this kind of power!"

Yin: "What is going on!?"

Nya: "Hell if I know!" Then we hear growling nearby. Beowolves and Ursa are everywhere.

Tyler: "Shit! We've got more problems!"

Angel: "It's the negativity of this thing! It's attracting them!"

Gretel: "Damnit!" Corbenik breaking the hold and firing.

Clyde: "Yeah, that's right! Quiver in FEAR!" He gets back into the fight and his Aura also glows red with black mist. "Let's go, Anna!" He summons a purple, what looks like a strange insect of some kind, with a single eye and it fires a laser.

Paris: "Fidchell!" His Guardian reflects the laser right back at him.

Angel: "Uh, guys! The Grimm are getting closer!"

Tyler: "We can't deal with them AND these guys at the same time!"

Gretel: "What're we supposed to do then!?"

Yin: "Hey? This looks bad! We gotta help them!" She draws her whip.

Nya: "Right!" Drawing her swords. The Grimm were gonna attack until Yin and Nya intervene. "Single Storm Twin Technique: Electrical Surge!" She spins to send a wave of electricity towards them while Yin just swings her whip around, freezing them in place so the surge breaks them easily.

Paris: "Hmm?"

Angel: "Who're they?"

Tyler: "They look awfully young to be out here!"

Yin: "Worry about that later! We've got a fight on our hands!"

Nya: "We'll handle the Grimm! You guys deal with those creeps!"

Gretel: "Fine by me!"

Clyde: "Argh! You bastard!"

Angel: "Innis!" Her Guardian comes forth and uses her Confusion Flight technique to attack them both.

Yin: "Here comes a blizzard!" Swinging her whip everywhere and slicing up Grimm.

Nya: "Wild Thunder!" Lightning strikes go everywhere.

Clyde: "Die. Die! DIE!" Yeah just keep firing and hacking at Gretel's shield.

Gretel: "No, you get out of my FACE!" Shield uppercut and then a mega blast from Corbenik's cannon straight to Anna's face. She then turns her attention to some Grimm with Paris, leaving Clyde to Tyler. Meanwhile, Rick vs Angel with constant sword clashing.

Rick: "You've gotten strong, pussy cat! I may actually have to try my hardest for once!"

Angel: "You put me through hell back then! I'll never let you push me around again!" She pushes him back while Innis slices Oswald in half and then dive attacks Rick. Clyde is seen hacking through numerous fire clones from Tyler's Semblance.

Clyde: "Gah! What a pain in the ass! Quit with the illusions and FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!" Charging a super shot from his pistol at the real Tyler who splits the shot in half with his sword.

Tyler: "Alright. But just remember: you asked for this." His sword and his hatchets clashed numerous times until Tyler found an opening and tripped him for a side kick. Once he hit the ground his Aura went out.

Clyde: "Shit, my Aura!"

Tyler: "Told ya so." We cut to see Rick get back up from Innis' dive bomb which made her de-spawn and made his Aura go out.

Rick: "Damn! Clyde! We have to retreat! You'll pay for this you bitch!" Clyde gets next to him and uses a smoke bomb to get away.

Paris: "They're gone..."

Tyler: "We can deal with them later. Right now we've got another problem." He glares at Yin and Nya.

Gretel: "Yeah, who are you girls? We appreciate the help but you shouldn't be here in the first place."

Nya: "Sorry but it's not like we wanted to be here. Our leader wouldn't let up about following you guys."

Paris: "Leader? As in, student team leader?"

Yin: "Yep. I'm Yin Croft and this is my friend Nya Storm. We're students of Shade Academy and members of Team CYAN."

Gretel: "Shade students, huh? There are only two of you here, so I'm guessing the other two followed the others?"

Nya: "Yep. My twin sister Alice Storm and our leader Celena Verde."

Angel: *gasp*"Celena!"

Nya: "Oh... You must be her mother then..."

Yin: "The ears AND tail didn't tip you off there?" Mumbling towards Nya.

Angel: "But... why would Celena...? Why would she want to get involved in Project Guardian business?"

Yin: "She kept saying something about feeling like this case concerns her in some way."

Paris: "Wait a minute... half of the team?"

Tyler: "Hm? What's wrong, Paris?"

Paris: "This is bad! We have to get to the others!"

Gretel: "Why!? What's wrong!?"

Paris: "Just like Team CYAN here, only half of Team DARC was here. Which means that-"

Tyler: "That the other half is at the domain of darkness!"

Angel: "That would be Devon Akuma and Aran Kuma."

Paris: "We already know from Aidan's report on the Phantom Field incident that Devon is alive thanks to Bitter Merlot. And if those two had whatever those monsters were that attracted the Grimm, then I'm sure the others may have them too."

Tyler: "Damnit! We have to hurry! Devon was already powerful enough with Tarvos and those things were pretty strong."

Yin: "We're coming too! Our leaders there after all."

Nya: "Well, her AND Alice..."

Gretel: "Fine. Let's just go!" They all get out of there and head for the airship. Well except of Yin and Nya.

Tyler: "Where are you going!? The airship is over her-" Nya unlocked the car with the button on her keys and the car appeared. "What the-!?"

Nya: "No time for questions, let's go!" They get in the car and follow the ship after they take off.


	9. Domain of Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

We cut back to the Domain of Darkness moments earlier when the explosion occurred and they see Devon and Aran as the dust clears.

Devon: "Well, well. Long time no see... Turnabout Terror!"

Aidan: "Devon!"

Connor: "This bastard again? I thought we killed this guy years ago?"

Chris: "Didn't you read Aidan's report years ago!? The Phantom Field incident brought up the fact that Bitter Merlot brought him back afterwards."

Connor: "Damnit!"

Makayla: "But wait... who's that with him?"

Aidan: "Aran Kuma. The A in Devon's old school team, Team DARC. Every members been blacklisted since the incident years ago."

Devon: "Enough TALK! Geez, you just never stop yapping, do you!? It's time that you pay for EVERYTHING!" He snapped his fingers as he said that last word, telling Aran to use his flame thrower which has quite the reach.

Chris: "Look out!" He punches the ground with Earth Dust loaded into his gauntlets to bring up a stone wall and block his fire attack. Aidan and Makayla get to the sides using their guns to attack, being Aidan's Death and Rebirth and Makayla's spears assault rifle form, while Connor uses his blade to create a bunch of ice shards and use his Semblance to launch them at the opponents with his mind. Devon used his signature 3 blades to stop the ice spikes and block their gunfire.

Devon: "Hmph! Cowards!" He and Aran charge for the wall, Aran changing to his battle axe and one swing breaks the wall down. Aidan switches to his Twin Blades and faces Devon with Connor while Chris and Makayla take Aran. Chris definitely has a speed advantage with his weapon compared to Aran using such a large weapon, and Makayla can do much quicker strikes with a spear against a large axe.

Aran: "Argh! Burn you bastards!" He brings out the flame thrower but Makayla teleports to get close enough and slices the nozzle off. Then Chris kicks him from the right which knocks him back a bit.

Meanwhile, Aidan's swift strikes with the Twin Blades and Connor's quickdraw style is effective but unlike Aran, Devon definitely has a fair amount of speed himself, but eventually Aidan switches to the Scythe for a longer reach to keep his distance from Devon's quick strikes.

Devon: "Plectra Bullet!" Counter!

Connor: *Han Geki!*"Lone Wolf Charge!" He's stumbling.

Aidan: *Ren Geki!*"Wicked Strike!"

Devon: *pant, pant!*

Aidan: "You're starting to get rusty, Devon!"

Devon: "Hahaha! It's just been a long while, but I'm not about to let that get in my way!" His Aura glows a bloody red with black mist surrounding him just like with Rick and Clyde. "Descend... Victoriaaaan!" He summons a yellow bird like creature surrounded by a black bubbly aura.

Connor: "What the-!?"

Aran: "Now were talking! Break 'em, Helen!" He summons a weird purple fish thing.

Chris: "The hell!?"

Alice: "Are those things Spirit Guardians too!?"

Celena: "No way! Only the Project Guardian members should have them. This is definitely way different from one, too."

Devon: "Ahahahaha! Die! Die! DIE!" Victorian tries a swoop attack but misses. Then it tries firing 3 lasers from its face which they dodge.

Connor: "Come on, Tarvos!" Tarvos comes out and fires numerous energy darts along with its Stake of Death technique. Helen sends out a barrage of purple fire balls but...

Makayla: "Macha!" Macha uses Bolt of Love to summon a bunch of little roses to float around and fire lasers to get rid of the fire balls before they hit them. Then she uses Seductive Voice to stun Helen, while Chris went in for an attack on Aran. Victorian managed to bypass Tarvos' Stake of Death attack and used a technique called Royal Bullet to stun Tarvos and then Royal Tackle on it.

Aidan: "Damnit!" His Aura glows. "C'mon... c'mon! I'm Right Here! Skeeeeiiiiith!" Skeith goes in to get Victorian off of Tarvos, and when he does so, they duke it out. Connor takes this advantage to fight Devon himself.

Alice: "Damn! This is crazy!" We both here Grimm coming our way. Griffons and Nevermores in the air while Beringals and small Deathstalkers are on the ground. "Crap!"

Celena: "They're heading straight for them!"

Alice: "Should we go in and help?"

Celena: "I don't think we have a choice!" We draw our weapons and ready ourselves.

Makayla: "Uh oh! We've got Grimm guys!"

Aidan: "Dammit! Why now?"

Devon: "Hahaha! Not so easy when you've already got a fight right in front of you huh!?"

Chris: "Grr! Gorre!" His Guardian uses a rapid fire attack to try and keep the Grimm back but Aran gets him from behind.

Aran: "Don't even bother. More are just gonna come because of our power!"

Makayla: "Why you little-!" She attacks him and both her and Chris keep fighting him.

Connor: "Argh! What're we gonna do!?" Just before they know it a steak of light passes by all of the Grimm which leaves them frozen in place for a minute until...(also everyone just stops and goes silent from what just happened.)

Alice: "Single Storm Twin Technique: Tempest!" A powerful blast of wind flies past them and the Grimm fall apart as if they've just been sliced into little pieces. After said pieces hit the ground they disappear. The fighters all look to their left to see Alice with swords in hand, and then they look to their right to see me back to normal after that quick attack.

Aidan: "What the-!? Celena!?"

Celena: "H-Hey, Dad..."

Devon: "Dad, huh!? Well, isn't that inconvenient for you, Turnabout Terror!?"

Aidan: "Touch her and you'll wish you were still dead!" His eyes went red and he switched to his Morganna sword and they keep fighting with Skeith and Victorian doing the same. More Grimm can be heard.

Connor: "Damn! Even more of them!" All the same type as before. Aran tries to attack Chris from behind but Chris hit him in the face with his back still turned, the resulting punch knocking him back.

Chris: "But we can't deal with the Grimm and these guys at once. We'd be over exerting ourselves." Aidan manages to push Devon back for a minute.

Aidan: "Damnit! I can't believe I'm doing this but... Celena! You and you're friend here deal with the Grimm. Connor, you focus on Aran. Chris and Makayla, help the girls with the Grimm. Devon's mine." He charged straight for Devon.

Connor: "Understood. Haaaaagh!" Straight for Aran, who quickly replace his sliced nozzle while he was knocked back. It was Ice vs Fire.

Makayla: "Let's go, Chris!"

Chris: "Right!"

Makayla: "You girls ready?"

Celena: "Yep!"

Alice: "Let's blow 'em away! Vacuum Wave!"

Connor: *Ren Geki!*"Heavens Charge!"(basically just the Devil Must Die move used by Devil May Cry's, Dante)

Aran: "Gah! Helen!" His fish headed straight for Connor.

Connor: "Orb of Revenge!" Tarvos hits it with an orb of electricity which makes it disappear. "Foolishness!" He hits Aran with a tower of ice, which in turn finished his Aura.

Aran: "Argh! Shit!"

Devon: "Sphere Bullet!"

Aidan: *Han Geki!*"Disaster Sword!"

Devon: "Grr! I am going to utterly destroy you!" Victorian uses Elegant Orb which Skeith knocks back at him with a Scythe swing and the orb stuns him upon impact. "Gah! Damn you!"

Aidan: "Finish him!" Skeith uses his cannon move which fires a ball of energy and explodes upon impact and the resulting explosion puts too much pressure on the enemy that it disappears. "Your next! Razor's Edge!" Devon's Aura is out.

Devon: *pant, pant*"Damn... Your stronger then I remember..."

Aidan: "You said it's been a long time."

Devon: "Damnit... Aran! We need to retreat!"

Aran: "Way ahead of ya!" He uses a smoke bomb for them to escape.

Connor: *cough, cough*"Dammit, they're gone!"

Aidan: *gasp*"Celena!" He turns to the others fight and their almost done, just one large Beringel left.

Chris: "Damn... This ones tough!"

Celena: "I got this! Alice, mind giving me a hand?" She nods and uses her wind to create a tornado to launch it in the air, then the tornado vanishes. "Trying to escape by blade?!" I use the same technique I used on the Mehe Suti. "Walk forth to the ever approaching moonrise... Distant Frontier!" It went just like last time and with that the fight was over. "Phew, that never gets old."

Alice: "Your telling me."

Aidan: "Ahem!" We turn to see my Dad, Uncle Chris and Aunt Makayla angrily staring at us.(Probably mostly me.) "Celena... would you mind explain why you are here and not at school?"

Celena: "Um... well you see-"

Connor: "We can deal with that later. Them being here isn't what's important right now. The crest is. Let's finish our investigation and then deal with this when we get home."

Aidan: *sigh*"Fine. But once we get home, your in BIG trouble young lady!" He heads back towards the pool but we all hear an airship nearby and we all turn to see it and when it lands we see it's the rest of the group coming back from the Domain of Light.

Tyler: "Looks like we're just in time to see you're all still in one piece." Looks like Nya and Yin are here too since the car came with them.

Nya: "Sorry guys. We had to help since there was trouble."

Celena: "Relax. We just went through the same thing."

Yin: "Two Faunus guys and a bunch of Grimm came and attacked them?"

Alice: "Yep."

Angel: "Unbelievable. I can't believe you just up and came here of all places, Celena!"

Aidan: "Angel, it's okay. I mean, I'm upset too but now isn't the time. We'll deal with this when we get back."

Angel: *sigh*"Yeah, I guess your right. I'm just a little stressed from the fight back there."

Aidan: "Clyde and Rick, I'm guessing? We just went at it with Devon and Aran."

Paris: "I'm guessing they also summoned strange creatures that attracted the Grimm?"

Makayla: "You too, huh?"

Angel: "I've never seen anything like it. They weren't anything like our Spirit Guardians, they were completely composed of negativity."

Connor: "The very substance that attracts all manner of Grimm. Their Aura was also very different when those things were summoned: a bloody red and generating black mist."

Gretel: "And we still don't know anything about the crest either." Then they here Jade and Masters over the intercom.

Masters: "I think we may have some useful information regarding that."

Jade: "I'd like everyone to return to shade immediately. The crest aren't going anywhere anytime soon so we can leave them be for now." They all head for the ships and we do the same with the car. But Dad hears Jade on his com-link alone. "Oh, and Aidan? I would like Team CYAN to join us as well."

Aidan: "What!? But, Jade, they-!"

Jade: "If they've gotten this far then they have the right to know the rest. Don't forget it was the same for you in school. Now if you'll excuse me." The intercom cuts out.

Aidan: *sigh*"Damnit... I thought this would happen someday but I didn't think it'd be this soon... Guess I better talk to her now. Celena!" That honestly made me jump.

Celena: "Y-Yes, Dad?"

Aidan: "You come with me in my ship. I still need to talk to you about all this and I'd rather do it now before we meet with Jade. She's requested your team to come with to the Project Guardian meeting. We can talk privately in the cargo hold."

Celena: "Yes, Dad. You guys take the car, I'll see you guys back in Vacuo." I follow Dad into the ship he takes and into the cargo hold while the others take the car to follow the ships back. Now in the cargo hold.

Aidan: "I'll get straight to the point. What made you decide to follow us out here?"

Celena: "Well, you see, after hearing you bring up this mission I just got a strange sensation that it somehow involves me. And after seeing those crest I'm almost sure I know why now."

Aidan: "And that is?" I told him about the dream I had the other night. "I see. So they are seals and they're holding back the Gods."

Celena: "What I still don't understand is how I was able to see all of this stuff in reality when I was asleep at the school."

Aidan: "I really don't know how that happened but I think Jade or Masters might know more specifically how it happened."

Celena: "Another thing kinda bothers me about it. Why did that goddess have my name?"

Aidan: "It's actually the other way around. In fact, I named you after her."

Celena: "Huh?"

Aidan: "The story of Celena is that she's the God of Lights daughter and she was asked to oversee Remnant when he and his brother abandoned it centuries ago. At such, while the Gods of Light and Darkness are more well known for creating Remnant, Celena was known as the one overseeing many life's after the brothers left, including mine. At such, since you are the most important thing in my life, I decided to name you after the being that oversaw my life if you turned out to be a girl."

Celena: "I see."'And here I thought he just named me that cause he thought that Celena was a nice girls name, but he actually had a good reason behind it. How sweet.'

Aidan: "To be honest, I had a feeling you might get involved in this eventually, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon. I just hope Jade's judgement about this is right."

Celena: "Um... Are you... still mad?"

Aidan: *sigh*"No, I'm just disappointed. Not in you, by the way. I'm disappointed in myself. I should've seen this coming sooner since it happened to me so young too. I guess I was just too protective. I'm sorry."

Celena: "Then... wanna call it even?"

Aidan: "Heh, sure thing, sweetie." I just give him a big hug for the longest time and let go as we land. "Guess we're here... Let's go."

Celena: "Right."


	10. Uninvited Guest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

In Jade's office. Masters had just left to meet with them on the launch bay. As she's going over the information they've gathered, she starts to feel a presence nearby so she grabs her cane ready to get up and fight when the elevator dings and opens to reveal a figure in pitch black clothing and cloak and his face is also masked in pitch black with red tinted lenses covering the eyes.

?: "Jade Quartz..." He has static in his voice, obviously using a voice changer.

Jade: "And you are? If your not a Huntsman or a Professor for this school, that means you're not welcome here. With that being the case, I suggest you leave before backup arrives." She glances up at the hidden security camera above the elevator door without him noticing.

?: "Oh, I'll leave before they do, but not before I've accomplish what I'm here for first."

Jade: "Well aren't you confident." She stands up and holds her cane like sword just like her grandfather Ozpin and the current Beacon Headmaster, Oscar Pine. Her cane is also a flame thrower at the tip, can use ice and earth Dust when said tip is slammed into the ground, and the rod can use lightning.

?: "It's about time that you meet with your grandfather, hmm?"

Jade: "..." She's trying her absolute hardest not to let that get her before she has to fight.

?: "Silent treatment, huh? Well, whatever. As you said, we're short on time." He draws a pitch black sword that sparks purple electricity just like how Angel's fire sword is tinted purple to give off a purple flame. Jade slowly walks around her desk while the figure readies himself. They charge at each other and the fight happens so fast, a whole bunch of weapon clashing with elements going everyone until one final clash that results in a hold until Jade pushes him back. *pant pant*"For an old hag I didn't expect you to be this good after all this time..."

Jade: "Wha- Old hag!?" Oh! Now that stings!

?: "Then again, thinking back to who exactly your grandfather was, I'm not all that surprised... But even so, your still just like all the other normal Huntsmen, unlike those Project Guardian bastards... as such, you're Aura's bound to be about done."

Jade: "The same should be said about you."

?: "But at least I know what I'm gonna do now..." His Aura glowed bloody red and generated black mist but instead of summoning a strange creature he spread the black mist everywhere to blind her. He twirled his cape to spread the mist and he disappeared when he did.

Jade: "Argh! What is this!?" She remembers her offices layout like the back of her hand so she knew she had go around her desk to keep stepping back, as she felt that stepping forward would only bring her closer to being ambushed if she tried to escape. As soon as she got behind her desk she felt a presence behind her so she turned around to attack, but she wasn't fast enough as he was quick enough to preform a quick upward slash to finish her Aura as soon she was facing him and then he quickly kicked her into her desk with enough force to knock it over and have her end up in the other side and she just lied there on the floor in the center of the room struggling to get up. He used his power to clear the mist afterwards. She doesn't need her cane to walk but if she did manage to get up despite the pain she wouldn't be able to fight back given that she dropped her cane when she was kicked over the desk, her cane lied against the wall left of her.

?: "Just stay down! You won't be able to protect yourself regardless with no Aura and without your weapon. An old hag like you should've retired long ago. But enough about that... it's time that I finished my mission." His Aura glowed red again with black mist. "Come... Tri-Edge!" This time he summoned a fire shaded orange colored humanoid creature with blades for arms and a large claw that starts from its left shoulder, this claw acted as a third blade. It used his three blades in a charged slash that left a large triangle shape edged in the floor that glowed the same color as Tri-Edge, that final tri-strike... killed her. As the assassin got closer to the body when he de-spawned Tri-Edge and put his sword away, he put two fingers to where his ear is and used a com-link. "Come in, Merlot? Yes, it's me. The job is done, I'm on my way back to headquarters. I'll be sure to proceed with my observations of Project Guardian once they return. Now that the Headmaster is out of the game, we'll have a better chance of winning, but for now, all we can do and sit and wait to see what happens from here."

Merlot: "Excellent. Despite a few setbacks on Team DARC's side of things, I must say that Project Demon seems to be progressing smoothly. I'm sure all of us in the Black Blade will be victorious. Please keep up the good work."

?: "Of course, Doctor." The com cuts off as he enters the elevator. He speaks to himself as it goes down. "Enjoy your reign over the group while you can, old man. You won't be ruling over the Black Blade for much longer, because I intend to take your place and 'reunite' you with your failure of a family. Rule over the Black Blade will be mine..." Meanwhile at the launch bay, our car and the ships land.

Masters: "It looks like you've managed another victory but over a rather tough challenge."

Gretel: "Your telling me... Who would've thought using a Spirit Guardian, especially one as big as Corbenik, was so draining...!"

Tyler: "Well what did you expect? The bracelet switches your Aura's ability to heal with the ability to summon it when it's switched on. Since it's being switched for something so powerful, it'd make sense that it'd be more exhausting than anything else if your not use to it."

Makayla: "But don't worry, you'll adjust." Masters is caught by the com.

Masters: "von Shang speaking." It was an unrelated Huntsmen running the surveillance room.

Huntsmen: "Mr. von Shang!? You're with Project Guardian, right!? You guys need to head to Professor Quartz's office now!"

Masters: "Whoa, calm down! What's wrong?"

Huntsmen: "There's been an assassination in her office while you were on your way to the launch bay!"

Masters: "What!?"

Huntsmen: "I've already called the Vacuo police, their on their way to investigate. The commissioner has already given Huntsmen the OK to help."

Masters: "We're on our way!" Cut off the com. "We need to go now!" We all head up for Professor Quartz office and see an awful scene before us when the elevator opens. The Professor is laying there dead on the floor and an orange glowing triangle like shade is edged in the floor.

Tyler: *gasp*"No! This can't be!"

Celena: "N-No way!"

Chris: "You're shitting me, right?"

Angel: *crying*

Aidan: "Ngh! Grrr! Gaaaaaaaah!" Not too long after the police show up and preserve the crime scene, while allowing us access to the computer in Jade's desk to check any video footage as the cameras connect to both the surveillance room AND the Headmasters computer.

Masters: "According to the surveillance guard, there is footage of what transpired."

Detective: "Then let's see it." The screen shows us what happened and seeing it only made dad even angrier. "Hmm... Well, the fact that it was caught on camera is useful enough. The only thing that makes it useless is that we can't tell who her assailant is seeing as they disguised themself and their voice."

Paris: "Wait! Rewind it to the beginning, and pause it when his backside is in full view."

Masters: "Of course." After doing so, it looks like we have ourselves a clue.

Alice: "Oh, is that it? The symbol on the back of his cloak?" She refers to the black sword emblem with purple flames on the blade.

Nya: "What is that symbol? I've never seen anything of the sort."

Paris: "That symbol. So I was right."

Aidan: "You noticed it too. It's definitely them."

Yin: "Definitely who?"

Masters: "It's the symbol of a terrorist group known as the Black Blade. A group created and led by the villainous, Bitter Merlot. The last remaining of Merlot blood left in history."

Detective: "The Black Blade, huh? If that's the case, then we'll leave it to you Huntsmen to catch the culprit while we gather information."

Masters: "Of course. Thank you, Detective."

Detective: "That being said, I ask that you all please exit this room soon unless you have other ways of helping. We need to keep investigating."

Masters: "Of course. We're done here anyway. Computer! Please transfer usage to classroom 3-D. We will continue progress there."

Computer: "Understood." We all head for the mentioned classroom.

Makayla: "Damnit! What the hell!"

Gretel: "Calm down! I don't like this either but we still have a mission to complete."

Paris: "She's right. We must commence the meeting right away."

Masters: "First things first, though, is the talk of our next Headmaster."

Aidan: "Yeah, yeah. I know your talking about me. And I have thought about it. After seeing what happened to Jade like that, I realize that I can't just sit by and let this continue. Which is why I have come to accept my place as Shade's next Headmaster."

Masters: "Hm. That's what I thought. In that case, I leave starting the briefing to you."

Aidan: "Right. And I think the first thing we should talk about are those crest. Masters? Didn't you say you got some new info on those?"

Masters: "Indeed. I believe you'll do better hearing it from Professor Pine though."

Aidan: "Right." Inputting the command to contact Beacon. Next second we see a screen with Oscar Pine's face.

Oscar: "Looks like your all ready, huh?"

Aidan: "Oscar. We're calling about those crest. Mind sharing what you've learned?"

Oscar: "Of course. After looking through Oz' archive, I found that the symbol of the seal is that of the Goddess, Celena, the daughter of the God of Light. Niece of the God of Darkness."

Aidan: "I knew it."

Chris: "Celena? Isn't that-?"

Makayla: "Yeah, Aidan's daughters name."

Alice: "But he said a Goddess named Celena. Who exactly is that?"

Nya: "Stuff like stories about God's aren't my forte..."

Paris: "The story is that when the brothers abandoned Remnant, the God of Light left his daughter to oversee Remnant as its Goddess while they were gone as he felt they couldn't just leave it unsupervised, what with Salem running amok."

Oscar: "Yes, but now the brothers are here in Remnant again after the four Relics that lied under the Huntsmen Academies were brought together."

Aidan: "And now Darkness is trying to convince Celena to join his side of the spectrum, given her power."

Oscar: "Wait, what? How do you know that? This is news to me."

Aidan: "Do you wanna explain, Sweetie?"

Celena: "Um, alright..." I explain my dream to everyone where I saw the Goddess place the seals in the first place.

Oscar: "So she experienced it as a dream, yet the aftermath actually happened in reality. Nothing about this sort of phenomenon is even mentioned in Oz' archive."

Masters: "I've actually may have heard of something like this before. It's not something that occurs naturally, but it is a possible phenomenon. Her body may have been asleep, but her consciousness may have been called forth in a sort of astral space only the God's exist in, but can also connect to the collective unconscious. As for why Celena was summoned forth and her specifically, I do not know. This phenomenon was only a strange myth I found while studying the aspects of psyche."

Oscar: "Hmm... it does seem possible. But right now, all we can do is speculate. Taking that in mind, though, we now know that these are seals and what they are for."

Connor: "So, what do we do now? Do we just leave them sealed up or do we find a way to set them free?"

Oscar: "Given the fact that they are Remnants creators there's no telling what kind of effect keeping them sealed like this will have on the world as a whole. Them leaving Remnant was one thing, but this is way different. We may have no choice but to release them."

Gretel: "But how do we do that?"

Paris: "My guess is that we must confront Celena herself about this. Something tells me that only she can remove them since she is the one who placed them."

Nya: "Theoretically speaking, yes."

Alice: "Oh, would you stop with the technical talk!?"

Nya: "Watch it, Alice!"

Yin: "Geez... Professor Verde, I hope you don't see us as a pain that'll get in the way."

Aidan: "Jade thought it was a good idea to involve you, so I guess I do too. Just don't let your bickering distract you in battle."

Yin: "Right."

Makayla: "Hey, let's not forget those things that Team DARC summoned."

Angel: "Those monsters composed of negativity... I felt as if my own heart had plummeted into darkness. None of us have seen anything like it."

Chris: "And the assassin that killed Jade used one to finish her off."

Aidan: "Yeah. He said its name was Tri-Edge... I won't forget that name."

Connor: "I get the sense that this isn't the last we'll be seeing these creatures. We will most likely encounter them through out this mission to break the seals too."

Tyler: "Most likely. In any case, our first step is probably to find that tower the goddess locked herself in when she set up the seals in Celena's astral... dream... thing?"

Aidan: "Right. We'll start the search fresh tomorrow. For now, let's let the police finish their investigation before we do anything." We all leave the room to prepare and rest up for tomorrow. Cut to the Black Blades dark lair.

Bitter: "You did a fine job killing off the Headmaster, just as planned. Well done."

?: "Yes, but now the Turnabout Terror has taken over. Are you sure this is any better?"

Bitter: "Even if I send you out to kill him right now, the odds of you winning are 20 out of 100 percent. Let us not forget how he managed against Devon's Inner Demon." A large door opens for Team DARC to enter. "Speak of the devil."

Clyde: "Dammit! What a bust!"

Rick: "That was stupid embarrassing!"

Aran: "What the hell was that performance out there!?"

Devon: "Yo, Merlot! You've got some explaining to do, this trinket put us at least on equal footing with Project Guardian and we STILL lost! What give!?"

Bitter: "Would you mind NOT screaming in my face? I didn't expect you to win the battle in the first place. However, whether or not you have won wouldn't have mattered regardless as I still got some good data from that test drive. At least I now know that my Demon Bracelets work."

Devon: "You lousy son of a BITCH! You were just using us as your guinea pigs!?" We was cut off by the cloaked figure drawing his sword in front of his face.

Bitter: "Relax, lion tail. You'll get another chance. We already have our next lead on their movements thanks to our little spy. Heheheh..."


	11. Family Issues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

The next day the police are done investigating since the recording is more than enough and there's not much left to gather from Jade's office so now the office is ready for use again, aside from the large mark in the floor being a rather unsettling sight. Jade's desk has been put back to where it belongs but it looks like Dad has already packed up his office and moved in.

Aidan: "Looks like we all had a rough night, huh?" Yeah, everybody doesn't look too good. Guess their still distressed about what happened. Well... except for Uncle Connor.

Connor: "Look, I know we've just lost a valuable ally but we need to stay focused on the task at hand. We can't let this distract us." Everyone just looks at him with a disapproving look. "Wh-Why are you looking at me like that?"

Makayla: "Are you SERIOUS right now!?"

Connor: "About what?"

Chris: "About what? What the hell do you mean 'about what'!?"

Tyler: "Yeah, what's your problem!? Why do you always have to be like this!?"

Connor: "I'm not sure I understand what you mean? I'm only stating the truth."

Gretel: "There you go again! Aren't you at all concerned about her death!?"

Paris: "Or is a 'valuable ally' all she was in your eyes? Because she was so much more than that! She was a well respected friend!"

Connor: "Your point being?"

Angel: "She was like family! She held us all together!"

Connor: "She held YOU all together! I'm only in this group because I promised to take responsibility of Tarvos."

Master: "Even though no one asked you too?"

Connor: "I felt it was my only way of making up for teaming up with that excuse of a lion, seeing as it use to belong to him!"

Tyler: "You selfish bastard!"

Aidan: "Looks like I made the right move keeping you secret from Celena... I knew you were heartless but to think I'd see it in person."

Connor: "Keep me secret from Celena? What are talking about?"

Aidan: "I thought you were a bad influence on her and right now, you are not helping with retracting that thought!"

Connor: "What!?"

Aidan: "You don't care at all that she's your family! The only purpose you see her for is to expand our bloodline! That's the only reason you'll EVER keep her safe if needed!" His eyes are red again.

Connor: "That is not true! I gave up that line of thinking LONG ago after what happened with our fathers power!"

Aidan: "Oh yeah? Well, you don't exactly have a good way of showing it... oh wait, scratch that, you don't show it period! If you really cared you would've stopped by more often instead of not at all. I waited until she turned 17 to tell her about you so that she'd take it better. And now I see you don't give a rats ass about what happened to our most trusted 'ally', as you put it."

Connor: "Oh and I see you didn't trust your own daughter about me until now even though I'M supposed to be your family!"

Aidan: "You? Pffft! Hahahaha! After seeing you right now, I can EASILY tell that Jade was SO much more my family than YOU EVER WERE!" He just fiercely points at him and everyone gasp and Connor just stood silent.

Celena: "Alright, Dad, that's enough! That's going WAY too far!"

Connor: "So that's how it is, huh?"

Celena: "Huh?" Everyone notices his rage and backs away from him until they hit the walls.

Connor: "I endure being a part of this team, this 'FAMILY' as you put it and your JUST GOING TO THROW ME OUT LIKE THAT!?" He draws his sword and a trail of ice stalagmites head Dads way to which Dad quickly draws his Morganna sword and shatters it with a single slice when the ice reaches him and when he did the slice sent an energy slash towards Connor that knocked him down. Dad then jumped from behind his desk and in front of Connor, pointing his sword at his neck.

Aidan: "You should know by now that you can't beat me... not after I grew stronger from our first fight..." He's gonna attack! I have to do something!

Celena: "STOP!" They both just look at me. "Look at yourselves! You guys are becoming the Gods of Light and Darkness, constantly fighting over who is right and who is wrong! I don't wanna see my family fight like they did... please..." Tears in my eyes pouring down my cheeks.

Aidan: "Celena..." His eyes turn back and he puts his sword away. *sigh*"She's right... what are we doing? Letting ourselves drift apart like this... I... I'm so sorry..." He extended his hand to help his brother up.

Connor: "Yeah... me too..." He takes it.

Aidan: "It's just... your so much different from the brother I use to know... you've change a lot since I left for Beacon..." He starts tearing up. "It's like I don't even know you anymore...!"

Connor: "Aidan..."

Aidan: *sniff*"I... I just want my brother back... the brother I use to actually get along with... the brother I use to love...!"*sob, sob*

Connor: "Aidan..." He just looks at him until he drops his weapon and pulls him in for a genuine hug that last a while. "I'm sorry..."

Aidan: *sob, sniff*"Heheh, look at us, heheheh, and I'M supposed to be the older brother."

Connor: "Heh, I guess I HAVE changed for something better than what I thought." I walk up to them.

Celena: "Um, does this mean, you'll stop fighting? That you'll see us more, Uncle Connor?"

Connor: "Heheh, I guess it does."

Aidan: "Come on, join on in, Sweetheart." He grabs me into the hug and eventually Mom, Uncle Chris and Aunt Makayla join in as well. The others just stand there watching in awe. After a while when everything has calmed down we get back to business. "Ok, now that we've got the feels out of the way, let's get back to work. According to Celena, the goddess locked herself in a large tower that lies somewhere in between the two domains."

Nya: "By my calculations it'd be the exact center between the two if she's trying to keep the seals up for as long as she tries to, so according to the map of Remnant that'd be right around... here!" She comes behind the desk and uses the control pad on the desk to zoom in on Vytal on the Remnant map displayed on the large halo-screen we all can see.

Masters: "Vytal? But that island is the epicenter of the peace between all four kingdoms ever since the end of the Great War many years ago, it's why we call the celebration of the peace the Vytal Festival."

Paris: "That doesn't necessarily exclude it from getting involved in any crisis. It's just been lucky so far."

Tyler: "Even so, you'd think we'd get a report from any inhabitant there about a random tower appearance."

Nya: "Actually, I'd be surprised if we did. According to Celena's description of her dream, the tower was made in a forest, to which there IS indeed a forest of trees that are known to be extremely tall. It'd be no surprise that their height would obstruct the inhabitants view of it."

Aidan: "It's also well known to contain small but dangerous groups of Grimm. As far as I'm concerned the Grimm never leave that forest because no ever goes in. Which means there would be no witness reports from Huntsmen or hikers."

Gretel: "Then I guess that's where we're going next."

Aidan: "Everyone go get your gear ready. I'm going to contact the head of the town there about the situation. They all just nod and leave. "Let's see. Town name is... Desier, head of the town... a Huntsman named Alex Xandrite. I hope he's willing to listen." Input contact command. "Hello? Mr. Xandrite? This is Aidan Verde of Shade Academy. Do you read?" The monitor display showed a man in a black dress shirt with an orange blazer, open. He has short black hair and a beard.

Alex: "Affirmative, however this line is for the Huntsmen Academy Headmasters only. Why is Jade Quartz not calling instead?"

Aidan: "It only makes sense that you don't know about it yet, but Professor Quartz is... no longer with us... she was murdered yesterday while me and my team were out on a mission."

Alex: "Oh, I see. Then I guess you've been selected as the next Headmaster?"

Aidan: "Yes, before the school year started, she entrusted me with the position when she planned to retire next year. But that's not why I'm calling. I'm calling because of something we believe concerns Vytal." He tells him about Project Guardian and the recent events of the Gods, the seals, the Goddess, Celena's astral dream, and Team DARC along with the Black Blade.

Alex: "I see. No one ever goes in those woods, not even the Huntsmen on guard here, so we wouldn't know about this tower. Very well, we will await your teams arrival and allow you to investigate. There's a helipad on the roof of town hall, so you'll be able to land there."

Aidan: "Thank you, Mr. Xandrite. We will arrive shortly."

Alex: "And please, no need for formalities. We're basically at equal rank now, so please, do call me Alex."

Aidan: "Right. Well, I'll see ya there, Alex." The screen shut off and he readies his gear. We all meet on the launch bay. "Alright, is the airship ready?"

Masters: "All fueled up and ready to go. And like last time, I'll be staying here to watch over Vacuo."

Alice: "Man, I can't believe we'll be living the actual Huntsmen life! I hope we're well prepared?"

Yin: "Are you kidding? We can't be anymore prepared than this." Looks like everyone has all their gear ready.

Celena: "Just remember that it's 8, well 7 Huntsmen and 1 warrior to 4 students, so we'll need to be careful."

Yin: "Ah, you worry too much, love! We'll be fine as long as your around." I just scratch the back of my head.

Celena: "C-C,mon, you're embarrassing me..."

Masters: "Are you sure you want your daughter and her team coming? They are still children you know."

Aidan: "Don't forget that it was this way for us too when we started. Besides, this DOES concern Celena on a personal level. This is their fight too."

Masters: "Haha, I guess your right."

Chris: "Yo, Aidan! We're ready!"

Masters: "Well then, good luck out there. We'll be awaiting your safe return."

Aidan: "Right. Let's go, Kiddo!" We all board the ship and take off. Meanwhile in the Black Blades lair.

?: "Thats all I have to report, Doctor."

Bitter: "Vytal, hm? Well then, I guess it's time that we take a trip." He activates the intercom for Team DARC to hear. "Attention, Team DARC! We've just obtained some new info and I ask that you all prepare yourselves. We're going on a little field trip to the Vytal island to experience our next battle against Project Guardian. Please prepare your equipment and head for the launch bay. We will be taking off here in an hour or so." Shuts off the intercom. "Excellent work on gathering that intel. It's been a while but I will be joining in on this mission. Time that I put my own Inner Demon to the test. You are dismissed." He turns to his desk to work on his gun. The cloaked figure leaves the room to prepare himself.

?: "Still... to think that she would be involved in this... but I guess it makes sense if her whole team is. I had hoped she wouldn't see me like this but that's not important, I need to focus on my objective. Getting that info won't be the only thing you thank me for, Merlot. Soon... you'll be thanking me for your death!"


	12. Vytal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

Alice: "Check it out! You can see Vale from here."

Nya: "Sure enough. I'd say it's really improved lately."

Yin: "Yeah, but it still can't beat the breathtaking view of Mistral. Vale is third place with Atlas being close second."

Alice: "Snob much? All of that and yet you're attending Shade?"

Yin: "I can't help it if Vacuo is my home kingdom."

Celena: "Same. There's no where better than home."

Aidan: "Having fun, you four?"

Celena: "Oh, hey Dad."

Aidan: "You know, speaking of Vacuo being your home, Yin, I don't think I've seen your father around at all lately."

Yin: "I haven't seen him since my initiation. I'm sure he's just busy with a mission though."

Aidan: "Well... He was scheduled to go on a mission after that but he was supposed to be back yesterday. Hm... Something doesn't seem right." He takes out his Scroll. "Hello, Masters? I need you to look into Raven Crofts recent activities. He was suppose to return and report regarding his recent mission yesterday. If he's still missing then put up a search party for him. We need all hands on deck."

Masters: "Of course. I'll see what I can find." He hangs up.

Aidan: "Dammit, Croft! Where did you go?"

Yin: "Papa... Where are you?"

Celena: "Don't worry, Yin. I'm sure they'll find him."

Yin: "Heheh, yeah, I guess your right. Thanks, Love." In come the intercom.

Paris: "Everyone please be seated. We will be arriving in Desier, Vytal soon." We all do as we're told and outside the window we see a small town but not as small as a village. The town hall is the biggest building here with the library being close second. We land and get off. We are greeted by the head of the town, Alex Xandrite in his office, who we can see is wearing black dress pants and brown slip on shoes with his outfit.

Alex: "You must be Project Guardian. I am Alex Xandrite, the head of Desier and I bid you welcome."

Aidan: "Thank you for your hospitality, Alex. But we need to look for that tower fast."

Alex: "Before you go, I should probably warn. We saw a black airship land on the other side of the island. I would've sent my men to investigate but that would've meant being short on guards if anything happens. I could tell that it was a different model from the Vacuo Air Force."

Tyler: "Different model? And black too?"

Gretel: "Was there anything in particular aside from those details that stuck out? Something a little more specific?"

Alex: "Actually, yes. It had a symbol I've never seen on the tail and wings. It was a sword with purple flames."

All: *gasp*"The Black Blade!"

Alex: "I thought so. You mentioned that group over the transmission, so I had a feeling when I saw it."

Chris: "How long ago did they get here?"

Alex: "About half an hour before you."

Aidan: "I have a feeling we'll be seeing Merlot and Jade's killer this time."

Angel: "And quite possibly Team DARC again."

Makayla: "There's no telling how many forces we'll be seeing in there."

Paris: "The Black Blade may be a strong group, but not a big one, regardless of how long they've been running. And if my guess is right, Merlot might be responsible for those strange creatures and with that in mind, he himself may have one too."

Aidan: "Still, we have to stand our ground. We'll be going now, Alex. You keep your town well protected while we investigate."

Alex: "Right. I wish you good luck." After leaving the hall, we all leave town and into the forest which isn't too far away.

Aidan: "All right girls, stay close. This'll be dangerous."

Celena: "Right." After a few miles we hear some rustling nearby.

Gretel: "Who's there!?"

?: "Shit!" Next thing we know rockets are coming our way. Blocked by Gretel's shield. Rick comes out of the shrubbery, rocket launcher in hand. Rick: "Well... looks like this will push things along." Dad suddenly draws his Twin Blades and stops a bullet that comes our way. Devon comes out from the bullets direction with Aran next to him.

Devon: "Hahahahaha! Didn't think you'd make it all the way out here! Then again, you're the ones who led us here, so I guess we should thank you for that!"

Gretel: "Led you here? What're you talking about? You got here long before we did!"

Aran: "Ah, who cares what we mean! You guys are done for!" His axe transforms to the flame thrower.

Devon: "Hahaha! You guys aren't getting away that easy this time!"*whistle!*

Aidan: "Take cover!" Gretel keeps her shield up to block Ricks rockets, meanwhile Aran's flames are blocked by Chris bringing up a wall of stone.

Alice: "This looks bad you guys!"

Makayla: "Wait a second! Wheres the forth one!?"

Angel: "Right on top of us!" There goes Innis's power helping her.

Tyler: "I got this!" Aura glow. "C'mon!"

Clyde: "Ahahahahaha! Vengeance is mine!" Flying above ready to fire charged shots from both guns.

Tyler: "My... MAGUS!" Clyde fires his guns and Magus' shine appears right when the shots hit and when the smoke clears we see Magus holding up his shield all around them.

Clyde: "Argh! Again!?"

Tyler: "Go, Magus!" He lowers his shield and goes after Clyde.

Devon: "Why you little-!" He and Aran go in to attack. Dad and Mom stop their attack, the others help Mom with Aran, Connor helps Dad with Devon, me and my team fight Rick all while Tyler keeps his distance to control Magus going after Clyde. This keeps up until Magus gets Clyde in a good enough position for Tyler to shoot him down with a single shot to the wing.

Tyler: "You know something? Your a bad 'wing'-man!" Shoot.

Clyde: "Gaah!" Direct hit! "God DAMMIT!" Aaaaand crash!

Tyler: "Told ya so!" They go at it until everyone was scattered with the heroes fighting each member randomly, except for Dad and Connor who were still fighting Devon. Me and my team were still handling Rick who was pretty strong swinging his broadsword around without being slowed by its weight.

Alice: "This guys tough!"

Nya: "Yeah, no kidding! Wild Thunder!" Lightning attack that was bounced back by his sword.

Yin: "Alice, mind lending me a hand?"

Alice: "Right!" Yin starts twirling her whip and Alice is using her wind to send the ice his way and the nitrogen in it helped freeze him in place.

Celena: "Nice!" Use my Semblance to slice through him with fire Dust embedded. He's lucky that his Aura helped him survived as he was broke free from the ice but knocked off his feet.

Rick: "Why you little-!" Aura glow. "Oswald!" The same purple spider from last time appears.

Yin: "This thing again!?"

Nya: "RUN!" We all run away until Rick was stopped by Mom and Oswald was stopped by Innis.

Angel: "Girls! Run! Try not to fight anyone who summons their 'guardian'!"

Celena: "Right!"

Rick: "Want a rematch, huh, pussy cat?" As he pushes her back with his broadsword.

Angel: "Again with that name... it's an absolute hell to hear... But it's okay... because you won't be calling me that again!" She breaks the hold and uses her fire to knock him back and her Semblance to phase through his attacks. Meanwhile Innis and Oswald continue fighting until Innis tricks it with the illusion of her Haze of Treason technique to which she appeared behind it and impaled it, resulting in it vanishing. At the same time Mom disarms Rick with a backflip kick and finishes his Aura with a final slash that knocked him into the tree behind him and he slid onto the ground face first, giving her a chance to handcuff him to the tree so he doesn't escape. "How's that for a pussy cat?" And then Chris runs up.

Chris: "Nice one. We better keep an eye on him though."

Angel: "Right." Meanwhile Aran and Clyde summon Helen and Anna who're tangling with Fidchell and Magus. The teams then split with Tyler, Magus and Makayla, Macha handling Clyde, Anna, and with Paris, Fidchell and Gretel, Corbenik handling Aran, Helen. Magus and Anna are constantly chasing and firing at each other while Macha tries to hit Anna with her energy rings and Seductive Voice technique while Tyler and Makayla tango with Clyde on the ground. Makayla's teleporting helps avoid his gunfire meanwhile Tyler deflects his bullets with his blade and then fires back while Makayla finally gets close enough to attack. Lots of clashing and kicking and then hold.

Clyde: "Mmmm! Such a beauty! To think I'd get a dance like this!"

Makayla: "Ugh! Don't get your hopes up, because your going down!" She trips him and kicks him aside which finishes his Aura. At the same time, Magus grabs Anna's tail, pulls him closer so that Macha can use her claws to slice it and finish it.

Clyde: "Gah! God damnit!" He aims his gun with his left hand but Makayla kicks it out of his hand, meanwhile Tyler runs up and grabs his other hand to toss his other gun and then handcuff.

Tyler: "Good thing we brought these."

Makayla: "Hope you enjoyed our little 'dance'." Next we have Paris and Gretel and struggling with Aran's flames, with Gretel using her shield and Paris using the ice Dust in his fan to counter. At the same time Fidchell and Corbenik are trying to catch Helen but it's so fast, even with Fidchell's constant teleporting. Gretel eventually tries to push through his flames with her shield up.

Gretel: "I'll show you what I'm made of...!" She kicks his flame thrower which makes him aim it upward so she can attack. He switches to the axe to fight back while Paris comes in closer to use lightning Dust with his fan swing. Corbenik then uses Celestial Wrath which distracts Helen to stay still long enough for Fidchell to use Will of the Gods.

Fidchell: "You believe in your power, but in the end... 'power'... will ultimately be your downfall!" That attack did a lot of damage to Helen to where it can barely move, so much that Corbenik can grab it with the tip of his cannon and point upwards with Helen still on the tip. He charges up for a large blast and then fires a gigantic beam which incinerates Helen. At the same time Gretel fights until she gets into position to use her Rising Sun attack where she does a hyper shield uppercut infused with solar energy gathered from her momentum. That uppercut finished his Aura and he's definitely in pain after hitting the ground. Kinda hope he broke his back. Anyway, Paris then came from behind and cuffed him.

Paris: "Talk about a serious burn."

Gretel: "Now he knows how it feels to feel the burn. Oooh, the irony." Finally we have the Verde brothers, with Dad wielding his Scythe, against Devon who clearly won't learn when to quit.

Devon: "Ahahahahaha! You know, this brings back memories to our big fight so long ago... you know, when you KILLED me!?" With an evil grin on his face.

Aidan: "Soon your gonna wish you'd stay dead!"

Devon: "Oh, I doubt that! Cause this time, the Inner Demon will beat the Spirit Guardian!" Aura glow. "Victorian!" The same Bird from before. "Prepare to die... TURNABOUT TERROR!" Victorian goes for a dive bomb which they dodge.

Aidan: "Nice try!" Aura glow. "Skeeeiiith!" Skeith using his dark powers on it followed by using his Scythe combos infused with light.

Connor: "Yo! Don't leave me out of this!" Sounding more enthusiastic in his tone. Aura glow. "Tarvos!" Firing numerous energy spikes, along with Connor firing numerous ice spikes from his sword. The ice disoriented Devon. *Ren Geki!*"Scatter Demon!"

Devon: "Argh! GrrrrrRaaaaah! Dust Bullet!"

Aidan: *Han Geki!*"Reapers Dance!"*Ren Geki!*switch to Broadsword. "Armor Break!" Devon is knocked back along with Victorian who was struggling with Skeith and Tarvos. The brothers are standing side by side. "Heheh! That enthusiasm is the brother I know and love!"

Connor: "You said you wanted me back, right? Well now I'm back!"

Devon: "Grrr! You damn pests! Why is it that the Verde's bring me NOTHING but grieve!?"

Connor: "Because your just a selfish bastard!"

Aidan: "Ready to play another game like old times, Little Bro?"

Connor: "Do you even need to ask, Big Bro?"

Both: "Haaaa!" Both going in for another attack. Both blocked with Devon's blades.

Devon: "Grrr!*pant, pant*You little pricks are putting up quite a fight, unlike back then... but I won't be stopped here!" He breaks the hold and calls down Victorian for a ground sweep but Tarvos' Stake of Death technique stops it in its path and Skeith ends it with his Chakram infused with light and darkness.

Connor: "Your next!" Side slash then uppercut slash to knock him back.

Aidan: *Ren Geki!*"Justice!" Switched to Death and Rebirth. Double Trigger. "Judgement!" 1. 2. And 3. The final shot finishes his Aura.

Devon: *pant, pant*"Damnit!"

Aidan: "It's over Devon. Where is Merlot hiding?"

Connor: "Him, and the one who killed Professor Quartz."

Devon: "Hahahaha! Like I'd ever tell you! You haven't seen the last of me!" Smoke bomb, he's gone. Moments later we're back in town with the 3 that we've arrested and place them in the holding cells aboard the airship.

Alex: "You said that's not all of them?"

Aidan: "Nope. Devon Akuma got away. Everyone rest up! We're heading back in once we've recharged our Aura's and re-prep our equipment. Alex? When we go back in, I'm trusting you and your men to guard the prisoners. The containment fields on their cells will cancel out their powers and their basically nothing special without their bracelets."

Alex: "Right."

Aidan: "Speaking of which. I'll need to send these to Atlas for analysis after this is over so we know exactly what they are." After several hours we're now ready to head back in and run into no trouble when we go through, aside from the particular Grimm inside, like Petra Gigas Geist, Ursa Major, and King Taijitu's, until we finally reach the tower in question. "Celena? Is this what we're looking for?"

Celena: "No doubt about it. There's no way I wouldn't recognize this scene..."

?: "Oh and what a scene it is." Bitter Merlot slowly comes from behind the tower and stops in front of the door. Bitter: "Long time no see, Verde. Ah, and I see you've brought both your friends AND your daughter."

Aidan: "Touch her and you'll be wishing to join your dastardly family!"

Bitter: "Oh, I wouldn't dream of it. My business has always been with Project Guardian and you alone. I don't have time to deal with children. It's why I never married."

Gretel: "Ah, shut it, you son of a bitch!"

Bitter: "Oh my, such a foul mouth on this one. You know I was hoping to face your father but I guess you'll do for now. After all..." He reveals his own bracelet. "I'm not like those other excuses for fighters. I'm a cut above the rest!" He activates it and his Aura glows. "Isn't that right, Grunwald?" The 'Inner Demon', as Devon called it, this time is the same shape as Rick's demon, Oswald, but unlike it, Grunwald is red rather than purple. Everyone readies themselves for battle while he just stands there silent. "Sick 'em!" Grunwald goes in but is stopped by Corbenik who Grunwald overpowers. His abilities may be similar but Grunwald is definitely much stronger than Oswald. Then Gorre and Macha go for and prove to be a good distraction when Magus and Innis come for it but Grunwald knocks them all away with a spin attack. Corbenik tries firing his cannon which Grunwald knocks away with its web shields and spread an Arachno Trap everywhere.

Tyler: "Gh! Dammit!"

Paris: "Fidchell!" He uses his Spinning Death move to cut everyone free of Grunwalds webs and when Gorre is free he uses Blade of Destiny to get it from a distance. Then Innis comes in to attack with Confusion Flight.

Bitter: "Heheh, not bad. But still not good enough!" He takes aim at Mom with his gun and shoots but Dad blocks it with his Broadsword, then he switches to his Twin Blades to face Merlot himself. A few clashes and Merlot's already panting. *pant, pant*"It's been a while since the Phantom Field so I'm really out of fighting shape."

Aidan: "And your supposed to be the leader of the Black Blade? Devon put up a better fight than you, despite how rusty he is."

Bitter: "Perhaps, but I refuse to lose here!" Another clash and hold.

Aidan: "Why do you even care about this tower? What does the Goddess Celena have that you want!?"

Bitter: "Isn't that obvious? I'm going to use my Inner Demon to enhance my Semblance enough to control Celena's mind and use her power to drain the Gods and use their powers to recreate Remnant in my image!"

Aidan: "What!?"

Bitter: "Indeed. Just imagine: a new Remnant where the Grimm STAY where they belong and out of the way so our world can revolutionize with so much more advanced technology than we EVER could've imagined without any interruptions from Grimm attacks!"

Aidan: "You stubborn bastard!" He breaks the hold. *Ren Geki!*"Ghost Falcon!" Didn't take long for his Aura to drain, which in turn, caught Grunwalds attention and gave the other guardians the slip in order to come Dad's way. Aura glow. "Skeeeeiiiith!" Skeith managed to stop Grunwald and push him back enough to use his large cannon attack, which in turn finished it off. "Looks like your plan will have to be held off, Merlot!"

Bitter: "Heheheh. Oh, but this was just phase 1. I needed to test my demon to see if it had what it takes. Clearly it requires much mor-" The next thing we know an orange flash happens and when we all can see again we see a dead Merlot and...

Aidan: *gasp*"This mark! But that would mean-!" He looks up to see it up there. "Tri-Edge!" Its triangle mark was on the ground.

?: "It looks like I've finally done it." We all turn to see the same guy from the video. Tri-Edge landing behind him.

Alice: *gasp*"It's him! The guy who...!"

Nya: "Yeah... the guy who killed Professor Quartz!"

Aidan: "You...! Who the hell are you!?"

?: "Wouldn't you like to know."

Aidan: "Why did you kill Merlot like that!? Wasn't he supposed to be your leader!?"

?: "My leader? I don't think so! He was nothing but an eyesore, a pathetic excuse for a warrior! I killed him to take control of the Black Blade myself!"

Aidan: "Take control!?" His eyes going red.

?: "Yes. My plan as leader is to use the God of Darknesses power to destroy this world, and then very soon, conquer the entire multiverse!"

Aidan: "What!?"

?: "All I needed from Merlot was a way to do so and he thought to use the Goddess of Energy to drain both brothers of their powers but really, you only really need one. All I need from Celena is for her to remove her seals and then I'll be able to get in touch with the God of Darkness. And with Merlot dead, there is nothing in my way to stop me... except for all of you!" He draws his sword. "I expect a good fight out of you especially, Aidan Verde!" Dad draws his Morganna sword.

Aidan: "With pleasure!" They go at with strikes infused with Guardian energy and black lightning. Both fighters seems pretty even with their sword fighting. Hold.

Aidan: "Just jump in whenever you feel like it!"

Connor: "Don't gotta tell me twice! Let's go!"

All: "Haaaaagh!" Everyone was charging at him and joined in the fight. Tri-Edge and every Guardian was summoned for their own fight. Despite fighting alone, he was doing well holding off all of us. Even me and my team are fighting while trying to steer clear of the Guardians, who are struggling with Tri-Edge.

?: "You all are awfully persistent!" He spins with his sword to get everyone to back off and when he did he let out a burst of dark energy. This put Yin in a state of shock.

Yin: "What the-!? This power!? This is-!?"

Gretel: "Haaaagh!" Gretel attacks again and was knocked back but this distracted him enough for Dad to get in a good punch to the face with his bionic right arm to the face the second he turns around. The resulting punch shattered his mask to pieces as well as knock him off his feet. He gripped his face as he was getting back up. When he did, a breeze came by and blew the hood off his head when he put his hand down to reveal his face. Along with his mask, his voice disguiser broke.

?: "Damn you!"

Celena: *gasp*"That voice!" He spoke in a British accent.

Yin: "I thought so... but I didn't want to believe it!"

Aidan: "So, it all comes down to this... Raven Croft!"


	13. Razor Clawed Traitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

To think, Raven Croft, Yin's father, was the black figure that killed Professor Quartz, and now the Black Blades leader, Bitter Merlot.

Raven: "Damn you, Verde! Blowing my cover like this!"

Aidan: "To think you were the one behind this. I thought your behavior was suspicious, what with you not returning to Shade."

Raven: "Guess I should've taken that into account."

Yin: "Papa..." Clearly upset. "I had a feeling it was you the moment I saw that dark power. I could've just shrugged it off as a stranger using darkness Dust but I couldn't get it out of my head... that you're the only one I know with an Umbrakinesis Semblance! I didn't want to believe it! I still don't want to believe it! And yet... I can see it right in front of me! My own Papa is some psychopathic murderer...! Why!?"

Raven: "Yin..."

Yin: "I thought you were a hero of justice, but now I see your some kind of menace!? Please tell me, why are you doing this!?"

Raven: "There is one thing I agree with Merlot on and that was the fact that this world is still chaotic regardless of the era of Ozpin and Salem being over. But his image isn't exactly perfect either. A world completely reliant on advanced technology? That's a world led by a fool! I see that technology has uses yes aside from minor fixes that some devices need, we don't NEED the advancements he envisions. What we need is a world in MY image! Where Grimm don't exist AT ALL! Merlot just wanted to keep them around to continue his fathers experiments of mutating them as well as his Dust altering experiments while making the excuse that their a natural part of this world. But Grimm do nothing but bring misery, and Huntsmen and Huntress are always out there dying at their hands."

Alice: "Says the guy who murdered a Headmaster AND a scientist."

Raven: "I'm just eliminating all those that I KNOW will be a hindrance to my objective. Including Project Guardian." Pointing his sword at Dad.

Nya: "But then why rule the multiverse? You said that earlier when you killed Merlot... that you would rule the entire multiverse."

Raven: "Ah yes. You see, changing Remnant is only one part to bringing true peace to the people. I plan to do the same to every universe in the entire multiverse, and with that, I'll be seen as a godly level hero and seen as a worthy leader!"

Aidan: "That just sounds like your turning the entire multiverse into a cult. Making every universe equal in terms of having no conflict, and thus, no balance. Sure it's not a perfect world but NOTHING is perfect in the first place. You can't have peace without conflict to balance it, it just doesn't work!"

Raven: "It's hypocritical, is what it is. And why I will change it."

Celena: "But why do you need the Goddess to do so?"

Raven: "Like I said: all I need her to do is remove her seals. Once that's done, all I need to do is use my Semblance, enhanced by my Inner Demon, to control the God of Darknesses powers, then use it to kill the God of Light in order to keep him out of my way."

Yin: "Would you even kill ME if I tried to stop you? I thought I was your 'pride and joy'. Or was that all just a lie for your cover?"

Raven: "You were at first. But after Robin died, I saw you as a nuisance. I just kept you around to grow you into a fine Croft to keep my family line going!"

Yin: *gasp* Now that hurts! *sob, sob* Drop to her knees crying. I run to her and try to calm her.

Celena: "Hey, hey, Yin? It's okay. It's okay!" She just keeps crying.

Raven: "Ah, don't be so surprised! You should've expected an outcome like this! Me hardly being around should've tipped that off!"

Celena: "Grr! You BASTARD!"

Raven: "And to answer your first question: I'll only kill you if necessary, and at this moment, I don't get any benefit out of killing you as you will never be strong enough to stop me without dying anyway!"

Gretel: "You son of a bitch!"

Connor: "This guy..."

Chris: "Huh? Connor? Are you alright?"

Raven: "But as for your little friend here..." Dad draws his Broadsword and slams it between us and him. His eyes are burning red again.

Aidan: "Touch her and you'll be getting a taste of your own medicine!"

Connor: "You...!"

Aidan: "Huh?" Connor draws his sword and flips it to wield it backhanded.

Connor: "You BASTAAAAARD!" He stabbed it into the ground and a large trail of ice spikes head Ravens way at an extremely fast rate and when they hit him they launched him into the a nearby tree. Connor leaps from where he's standing to in front of us. "Don't you DARE touch my niece!"

Raven: "Argh!" Trying to get up. "And since when do you care about her? Last I checked you were just like me in that you only saw her as a way of expanding your bloodline."

Connor: "You would be right... I did use to be like you, but family is more than expansion... I'll be sure to burn that into that stubborn mind of yours!" He goes in to attack and the fight starts up again.

Aidan: "Celena! Take your team into the tower and talk to the Goddess. We'll hold off Croft! GO!"

Celena: "Right! Come on, Yin, we gotta go."

Yin: *sniff*"Yeah..."*sniff*"Alright..."

Celena: "Nya! Alice! Let's go!" The four of us head for the tower while the others face Raven. Alice tries getting the door open.

Alice: "Dammit, it's locked!"

Nya: "No, duh, Sherlock! What'd you expect?"

Yin: "Let me try." As expected: it wouldn't open. "Its locked from the inside."

Celena: "Wait here, I got this!" I use my Semblance to travel through the cracks and once I'm in I unlock the door to let the others in. I lock the door behind us to keep Raven out. *sigh*"What an ordeal..."

Yin: "Your telling me!" Her back against the wall, hand on her head, stressed out. "I can't believe this! I was just a pawn to him! A tool! I can't believe I was such a fool!"

Alice: "Uh, was that rhyme intentional?"

Nya: "Of course not, you moron!"

Celena: "Guys, stop it! You're not helping her stress! Hey, it's okay. We're here for you, alright?"

Yin: "Yeah... your right..."

Celena: "Good. Come on, we've wasted enough time dealing with Merlot and Raven. We've gotta get to my Goddess counterpart." We all head up the stairs, which were in a spiral formation being a cylinder tower, the tower itself seems much taller inside than it looks outside but we did make it to the only room at the top of the tower. A single, locked door stands between us and the Goddess sealing away her father and uncle.

Alice: "This is it, huh?"

Nya: "Seems like it." Then we hear her voice.

G. Celena: "Who goes there!? I know your out there!"

Yin: "Shoot, she sensed us!"

Celena: "Goddess of Energy, Celena! We've come to talk to you about recent events!"

G. Celena: *gasp*"That voice!"

Celena: "Remember me?"

G. Celena: "You... You're the mortal from the night I sealed the Gods!"

Celena: "Yes! My name is Celena Verde, and these three are my team: Yin Croft, Alice Storm and Nya Storm!"

G. Celena: "Why are you here!? I'm trying to hold my seals!"

Celena: "That's kinda why we're here! We originally came regarding the removal of your seals but now we've got a mad man who wants your uncles powers to remake the multiverse! But we can't just leave the seals either! There's no telling what effects them being trapped will have on Remnant if they remain like this for much longer!"

G. Celena: "Nothing is going to happen! If I let them go then their constant fighting will happen again! Neither of them will listen to me though... This is the only way I can think of!"

Celena: "There has to be another way! You can't keep this up forever but if you do stop, Raven Croft will get what he wants! Can't you think of anything else!?" There was silence for a moment.

G. Celena: "There is one other thing I can think of, but it's not easy!"

Celena: "What is it?"

G. Celena: "As long as one god is here in Remnant, the consequences won't be so bad, hence why Remnant stayed the way it is for so long after the Gods left and I stayed behind. We can banish my Uncle to a realm unreachable to mortals. But it takes a lot of power to do so. I would need to be at full power and have help from other powerful beings."

Celena: "Other powerful beings... Ah! What about the power of the Spirit Guardians!? Would that work!?"

G. Celena: "Yes... Yes, that would work! But, again: they'd have to be at full power!"

Celena: "Then we can start now. It'll take longer for you to recover since you've been like this for so long but if you let down the seals now without Raven knowing you can start recovering now, and once Project Guardian finishes fighting out there we can leave this place and they can recover themselves. Just let us in and we can wait for them to stop fighting from here." There's another moment of silence.

G. Celena: "Alright... I'm going to remove the seals now and enter a temporary human form to blend in. My powers will recover regardless."

Celena: "Alright." In the room, the Goddess relaxes herself in relieve, showing that she removed the seals. Then she made herself look more human. A light skinned girl with long, straight black hair in a simple blue dress and barefoot. Once she changed she opened the door and saw our team.

G. Celena: "Please, come on in." Everyone comes in and she locks the door behind them. Nya looks out the only window in the room.

Nya: "Looks like things might be cooling off soon." Meanwhile in the fight everyone is doing everything they can to stop Raven, he's gotta run out of Aura eventually.

All: *pant, pant, pant, pant*

Raven: "You guys... are more... persistent then I thought..."

Aidan: "And you're just too stubborn to go down...! Here I thought Devon was stubborn but you may be more so than him...!" Raven looks at his Scroll that has his Aura gauged, it's almost out.

Raven: "I won't be getting anything done with my power like this. You guys better enjoy you're technical victory, because it won't last long at all!" He escapes with a smoke bomb.

All: *cough, cough, cough* The smoke clears.

Tyler: "Damnit! He got away!"

Gretel: "This is not good!"

Paris: "He'll most likely flee this island to recover."

Chris: "Most likely with Devon too. He did get away, leaving his team behind."

Makayla: "Some leader..." We exit the tower with the G. Celena.

Nya: "Then it's a good thing we've got a plan."

Paris: "That girl with you, is that-!?"

Alice: "Celena the Goddess? Yes. She's taken a human form to blend in."

G. Celena: "A pleasure to meet you all. Especially you, Aidan Verde. I've seen how much you've all grown over the years but you've certainly grown the most out of this group. True you may not have been the ones who stopped Salem, but you've certainly faced a big ordeal yourself."

Aidan: "Well, you've certainly been an inspiration for me. I mean why else would I name my daughter after you."

G. Celena: "Yes. Though I must say, I still can't believe she appeared the night I sealed my family."

Paris: "We believe we have an explanation for that." We explain everything to G. Celena on the way out of the forest and back to town. We reach town hall, get introductions with Alex out of the way and we all sit down for a final meeting before leaving.

G. Celena: "Regarding your earlier explanation of why Celena was present that night, I do believe it's the most likely reason. The consciousness of humans and Faunus alike may be pulled into the astral space of the Gods, but only when they are asleep or unconscious, such as the case with Celena. As for the reason she was pulled in, it may be because I was subconsciously calling for help in the situation I was in and so my cry pulled her in. And as for why it was her specifically, it was merely just a random choice. It could perhaps be from the coincidental viewpoint in that we share the same name, but other than that, her coming was completely random."

Celena: "But while I was there everyone questioned why I was there?"

G. Celena: "It's likely that they didn't immediately think of that possibly as it is an extremely rare occasion that we draw a soul for help. Especially God's as high a caliber as my father and uncle."

Paris: "Nobody is perfect, not even gods. And godlike power only leads to over confidence, which can often be unfortunate."

Alex: "Agreed."

Chris: "Regardless. Nya said that they had a plan to stop Raven."

Nya: "That's right. But it's one of those plans with a low chance of success, but at the same time the only option at hand given how much time we have."

G. Celena: "With the aid of multiple powerful beings, I will be able to use a forbidden technique to banish my Uncle to a realm in the multiverse untouchable to mortals. That way, Raven Croft won't get want he wants. The Spirit Guardians the eight of you wield may be enough power to help. But again: we'll all need to be at full power to do this."

Makayla: "Which means we'll need to rest up... A lot."

Gretel: "Especially Celena. She's been holding those seals for days."

G. Celena: "At this moment, Raven doesn't know I released the seals ever since the tower. My power has slowly been recovering since then. And given how my Uncle works, even if Raven were to find out he wouldn't be able to reach him for a while. We have some time to rest up."

Aidan: "I'd rather we get this done as soon as possible. But a rest will be necessary. Do you think your power will be ready in a day?"

G. Celena: "I would have to be asleep the whole day without disturbance to do that."

Tyler: "Then we go back to Shade and do just that."

Connor: "And how do we do that? We have to rest too."

Yin: "Project Guardian has to rest their powers, Team CYAN doesn't."

Alice: "She's right. The eight of you can take it easy. We'll make sure she gets her sleep."

Celena: "Right. She can use our room. We can take shifts guarding the door in teams of two."

Angel: "Celena, you don't have to do that. We can get other Huntsmen to help-"

Aidan: "Sounds like a plan. At this moment, Team CYAN are the only ones at Shade outside our group who knows about this and I'd rather not involve more Huntsmen than necessary, especially professors."

Angel: "But they've already wasted their weekend helping with this and tomorrow's a school day! I'd rather not have them miss it."

Aidan: "Argh! Fine, I'll have some other Huntsmen guard CYAN's dorm room and Team CYAN itself can take over after school hours. Any homework the teachers give out I'll make sure they have a specific deadline. We need all hands on deck. Will that be ok?"

Angel: *sigh*"Alright... I guess that works."

Aidan: "That cool with you girls?"

Celena: "We'll only look suspicious if all four of us skip school so we might as well go with it."

Angel: "Good."

Gretel: "Then we might as well get going back to Shade to have that rest." Dad drinks from his soda flask and calls Masters on his Scroll.

Aidan: "Masters, come in! Do you read me?"

Masters: "Loud and clear. What is it?"

Aidan: "Please have an extra bed sent to Team CYAN's dorm room. We have the Goddess with us and she'll need plenty of rest."

Masters: "But of course. I'll get right on it. Over and out!" The Scroll call ends.

Connor: "Alright, then. Let's get going." Everyone prepares their stuff and boards the ship. Aran, Rick and Clyde are in the onboard prison cells, who'll be sent straight to Atlas for imprisonment. G. Celena is meditating in the cargo hold trying to recover some of her strength. Alex gave us a final goodbye before we left. Meanwhile on the other side of the island. Raven and Devon are prepare their black ship for take off.

Devon: "Dammit! I can't believe we lost again!"

Raven: "Merlot may have been a necessary sacrifice, but if you include him, we are now down by four men, with the remaining three being captured. Your leadership skills definitely seem to have gone extremely downhill since your school days."

Devon: "SHUT UP! I'm just not leader material! You of all people should know that by now, Croft!"

Raven: "Regardless, from this day forward, I will be leading the Black Blade and we still have work to do."

Devon: "Heheheh! This is gonna be GOOD!"

Raven: "Relax, mate. You'll get another chance... someday!"


	14. Before the Mission: Team CYAN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

We arrived back at Shade last night and just as Dad requested, a fifth bed was added to our room for G. Celena. Early this morning two Huntsmen named Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias we're standing outside our door standing guard so we could attend class. Gretel has replaced Dad as the professor for the Spirit Guardians class this year since he has taken over as the Headmaster. Although with everything that's happened, I doubt any of us can focus on our lessons. Our final class of the day is the sparring class voluntarily taught by a one Ruby Rose Pine, wife of Beacon Academies Headmaster, Oscar Pine, for the rest of this week.

Female Faunus student: "Hey, who's this? She's not our sparring teacher."

Male human student: "Yeah, wheres Professor Daichi?"

Male Faunus student: "Didn't you hear? The prof is on a mission?"

Ruby: "Alright, listen up! Your usual teacher, Yatsuhashi Daichi has been asked to attend a search and destroy mission this week due to the recent rise in Grimm activity and Yatsu was one of the better candidates for aiding villages outside of Mistral. Normally I help around Beacon but a lot of candidates were from Shade so with a good chunk of the staff here gone for a while, Headmaster Pines has asked me to help out here." We just here constant mumbling among our fellow students in the gallery. "Yatsu will be back from his mission this weekend so I'll be teaching this class for the rest of the week. So first, my name is Ruby Pine, veteran Huntress. Now then, today we'll be testing ones ability of handling a large group alone. With the time we have we'll only have one student volunteer for the test. The test itself will have the selected student sparring against a large group out of the class. Any volunteers?" Don't know why but no one is volunteering to fight solo. "No one? Then I guess I'm choosing randomly. Let's see..." I can't help but notice how much she's eyeing me in particular every glance through the whole gallery. "Hmm... you there! The cat Faunus in blue."

Celena: "Huh? Me?"

Ruby: "Yeah. What's your name?"

Celena: "I'm Celena Verde."

Ruby: "Verde? As in, Aidan Verde? The new Headmaster of this school?" I had a feeling I'd get unnecessary praise from that fact.

Celena: *sigh*"Yes. But that's not important! You want me to fight?"

Ruby: "Yeah, come on down from there." I obey my temporary professor and come down. "Head for the locker room and prepare your gear while I prepare your opponents. You're not to come out until I say. Understood?"

Celena: "Yes ma'am!" I do as I'm told. Using my Scroll, I call forth my rocket locker holding my combat gear. As I'm preparing I keep thinking back to the events that happened this weekend. The Gods... Spirit Guardians... Inner Demons... the Black Blade... the Goddess... and Raven Croft... To think that Yins own dad would become so twisted. And the fact he killed our Headmaster AND Merlot is beyond messed up. Next thing I know, Mrs. Pine knocks and calls me out. I try to get myself focused to get through this fight, but it's hard to do that with everything that's happened. Then again... I guess I can use this as motivation to improve my skills. I exit to see two randomly chosen teams since there's 8 students. One being Yew, Lance, Lana and Wilde of Team YLLW, and the other being Mike, Odin, Oasis and Neko of Team MOON. All of Team MOON each use a regular sword of different types made from different types of Dust: Mike wields a Khopesh made from Fire Dust, Odin wields a Claymore made from Lightning Dust, Oasis wields a Rapier made from Ice Dust and Neko wields a Katana made from Wind Dust. Meanwhile all of Team YLLW wield a variety of weapons: Yew wields dual sickles made from Dark Dust, Lance wields(what else) a lance made from Earth Dust, Lana wields a Kusarigama with a blade made from Water Dust and Wilde wields a sniper rifle loaded with Light Dust and bayoneted with a Light Dust blade.

Ruby: "Now then. I want a clean fight, but no need to hold back either. The eight of you work together to fight her while she tries to overcome these odds alone. Fight starts at the bell!" She pulls out a little hand bell and little hammer. "3..." My opponents ready themselves. "2..." I ready Senshi. "1..." You can see how anxious my teammates are in the gallery. "Begin!" She rings the bell and they all charge at me. I do my best to defend against each of them as they keep striking one at a time from different directions, however I eventually find an opening to trip one of them and start getting an advantage from there until Wilde stands back to snipe from a distance. The rules to win were simple: I either had to knock them out of the ring or I lower their Aura level past 15 percent, which all of us are having our Aura gauged and displayed on the big screen above. I win if I can manage to do either of those options to all of them, but I lose if they do either one to me, which means I have to watch the arena limit AND be careful of my Aura level based on the damage I take. So long as I can use my Semblance to avoid most of their attacks I'll be fine. Wilde's advantage didn't last very long as I triggered some wind Dust through my blades to blow him out of the arena and eliminating him. Knocking out the others is gonna be hard though so I gotta get in as much damage as I can get. Oasis, Yew and Lana have less defense with their choice of weaponry so getting their Aura Down was easy. Lance's weapon wasn't very versatile but made for good defense with its size so I had to knock him out. Mike, Odin and Neko remained as they would be difficult with their weapons being good for defense and their not so heavy to slow them down but my Semblance gives me a bit of a speed advantage but I still ended up taking a hit or two until I eventually dropped Mikes Aura low enough and knocked Neko out of the ring. That left only Odin in the ring with equal Aura to mine. Seeing him wielding a dual edged lightning sword made me extra pissed as that's what Raven used against Jade, so I wasn't about to just stand here and lose. We just kept clashing weapons until we got in a big hit that lowered both of our Auras just above the 15 mark. I'm not gonna have enough time to use Distant Frontier, but I do have something.

Enter flashback... Oscuro Academy 2nd year.

Celena: "Dad, do you think you can teach me how to use Twin Blade Arts from your fighting style?"

Aidan: "Hmm. I don't know... There's enough trouble as it is with too many people knowing Masters fighting style. Maybe I'll teach you some other time when that trouble dies down a bit."

Celena: "Oh, alright... I can always wing it like always!" With a cocky grin on my face.

Aidan: "Now slow down there, Kitten! Winging it's not a bad thing but you shouldn't rely on it too much."

Celena: "Yeah, I guess not... sorry."

Aidan: "Hey now, it's okay. Look... I may not be teaching you Arts right now, but I will teach you a failsafe technique of Masters style. It's a technique that just needs one percent of Aura and tons of adrenaline to use. I've just never used it because I've never felt like I needed it. It's called the Divine State. All of that adrenaline is used to enhance your attack strength and that one percent of Aura is to use that strength to preform a special technique that's kinda similar to an Art but one doesn't need to know how to use Arts in order to use it. The technique used is dependent on what kind of weapon your using at the moment, and no there are no Divine State techniques for guns or any other ranged weapons like bows and arrows. In your case you'd be using the Divine State Twin Blade technique: Sword Dance. Which I know is the same name as one of the first level Twin Blade Arts but it's very different."

Celena: "I see... Should I give it a try or should we wait another time to actually use it?"

Aidan: "It's better to go over all the basics first and then work up to the real thing."

End flashback...

Haven't actually used the Divine State in a real fight yet but I guess now is as good a time as any to try. Odin comes charging at me and I block his sword and push him back, placing him on exactly 15 percent.

Celena: "Divine State!" I then force out every drop of adrenaline I have and combine it with my Aura to enter the Divine State. Senshi then glows a light blue and I use the Sword Dance technique which allows me to channel energy slashes to create a 5 way cross slash and then send a large chakram his way and when it hits a bright flash covers everything and when it clears we see Odin on the ground out cold, and we see his Aura has been reduced to zero while mine is at exactly 15 percent. Everyone is just in awe from my Divine State technique. And Mrs. Pine looks like she's gonna burst from excitement but managed to keep her cool.

Ruby: "And with that, Celena Verde wins the match. I hope you all were paying attention to how she kept cool under pressure and stayed strategic about her limits as any Huntress should be." That's when the bell rang and school was done for the day. "Excuse me, Celena? Mind staying a minute for a quick talk?"

Celena: "Uh... sure. Give me a second. Um, guys? A word." The four of us gather and make sure we're not heard. "You guys head straight for the dorm and watch the Goddess just as planned. I'll catch up in a minute."

Nya: "Right. Alice and I will take first watch. You and Yin can take over after a couple of hours once your Auras up again." We split up and I head into Professor Daichi's office in the sparring hall to speak with Mrs. Pine, and I have a seat to face her across her desk. "You wanted to speak with me, Ma'am?"

Ruby: "Hey, no need for formalities right now. School is done for today, so please, just call me Ruby."

Celena: "Right..."

Ruby: "Anyway, what was that crazy move you did back there!? I've never seem anything like it!" Looks like she couldn't hold it in anymore.

Celena: "You mean the Divine State? It's a failsafe technique that requires every bit of adrenaline you have and just a small percentage of Aura to strengthen our attack strength, and that percentage of Aura allows you to preform a Divine State only attack similar to an Art, but you don't need to know how to use those to use this. The attack done is dependent on your current weapon. In my case, my dual daggers allowed me to use the Sword Dance technique you saw today."

Ruby: "Wow! That's so cool! Oh! What about me? What could I do with Crescent Rose?" She reveals her weapons to be a large sniper-scythe.

Celena: "The Divine State has techniques for melee weapons only, any ranged weapons won't cut it. Those who only use a ranged weapon only get an attack boost when entering the Divine State. Your weapon is part scythe so you would be able to use the Plasma Blade technique, where you jump high into the air and slice downwards, sending a large energy slash on the enemies, and the slash explodes upon impact."

Ruby: "Oh that's so awesome! Think you can teach me how to use it?"

Celena: "Ahaha... Sorry but I only know how to use the technique. I'm not very good at explaining stuff like that. You'll have better luck talking to Dad about that. Not like it'll be easy to convince him though. He never taught me how to use Arts because of how many people currently know the style, and users of the Divine State are very rare. He only taught me in order to defend myself in tight spots like today's lesson."

Ruby: "Well that's a shame."

Celena: "Yeah..." I just don't know what to say with all the heavy thought.

Ruby: "Hm? What's the matter? You seem rather distant."

Celena: "Huh?"

Ruby: "I didn't just call you here for idol chat about your style. I noticed you're rather strict determination to win that fight. Your strategic actions far exceeded anything a student has done in a sparring lesson rather than out in the field." Guess I shouldn't underestimate a professional who's been at it for as long as my Dad.

Celena: "I guess you could say I have a lot going on right now."

Ruby: "Let me guess: your still overwhelmed by Professor Quartz' death and that your Dad has taken over, right?"

Celena: "Well, that's part of it but I'd rather not say the rest." It'd probably create chaos if any other Huntsmen knew that one of the more trusted Huntsmen has turned traitor.

Ruby: "Well, I guess I know how it feels. Back in my school days when I first attended Beacon I was almost immediately thrown into something I knew I shouldn't have gotten involved with but I did it anyway because it's a Huntresses job to do what's right. But the real fight only happened after the fall of Beacon when MY Headmaster died. Professor Ozpin."

Celena: "Professor Quartz' Grandfather."

Ruby: "Right... Even with everything we went through we didn't give up even with all the heavy thought. There will always be times of despair but one cannot let that despair bring them down. There is always hope." I've heard all sorts of praise about her way with words and she certainly lives up to it.

Celena: "Yeah... You're right... Thanks, Ruby."

Ruby: "Anytime. Oh, and say hi for me next time you see your Dad. It's been a long time since I last saw him."

Celena: "Heheh. Sure." As I leave the office and head for my teams dorm. I see the twins outside with their swords in hand. "Anything to report?"

Alice: "Nope. No suspicious characters have come by."

Nya: "She is still asleep. Thankfully. Yin is inside making sure it stays that way."

Celena: "Guess I better join her." I quietly head inside and see Yin in the bed next to G. Celena.

Yin: "Ah, good. You're here. At this rate, she should be completely at full strength by tomorrow morning." We both speak in a whisper.

Celena: "Good. After a fight like that, I'll need to rest up my Aura. I should be good to go when it's our turn."


	15. Before the Mission: Project Guardian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

Meanwhile in the Headmasters office, Dad is discussing matters with Chris, Makayla and Tyler.

Aidan: "If we're going to banish the God of Darkness then we're going to need to be careful. From what Professor Pine has told us, he wiped out the entire population of Remnant many centuries ago before Salem got her Grimm makeover. It's still a mystery how life here even returned, it's almost as if it was just a second chance."

Tyler: "And this second chance was the start of the Faunus."

Chris: "And banishing the God of Light wouldn't do because that would leave Darkness to do what he pleases with no one to oppose him. Not to mention that his power is what Raven wants. Banishing Darkness is our only option."

Aidan: "Obviously... But first, we need Celena at full strength."

Tyler: "Same with the eight of us. She needs our Guardians to aid her in performing the spell." Their all in silence until they notice that Makayla's spaced out.

Aidan: "What's up, Makayla? You've been quiet this whole time. Something wrong?"

Makayla: "Oh, no, it's nothing. It's just that this is giving me another reminiscent feeling."

Chris: "How so?"

Makayla: "You know? The four of us coming to this office, back when Masters was, in a way, our enemy."

Chris: "Oh yeah. That was when we first gained our Guardian Bracelets."

Tyler: "That was also the start of Devon's thirst for power. All he cared about before that was looking down on others who couldn't stand up for themselves... human or Faunus."

Aidan: "That bastard. He even went so far as to use my fathers power..."

Tyler: "Let's not forget about the Merlot Twins. They were a real nuisance."

Chris: "It was more Bitter than Sour though."

Aidan: "And there's no way I could forget the Phantom Field. Makes me wonder how the other worlds are doing after all these years."

Makayla: "I don't know... Judging by your report, these other worlds seems pretty crazy."

Tyler: "Yeah, I mean, Ninjas, Demon Hunters, mid-evil guildsman with knights and princesses... Yeah sounds normal to me."

Chris: "About as normal as a world with black monsters, super powered warriors, magical women named after the four seasons and people with animal parts."

Tyler: "Touché."

Makayla: "But now our enemy is a false ally and now he leads the most illusive terrorist group in Remnant. Things aren't looking good."

Aidan: "Croft will pay for his actions. That's guaranteed."

Makayla: "I hope so..."

Chris: "Wait a sec! I just thought of something! If Celena needs help from great power like all eight of our Guardians, then why don't we gather the four Maidens to help. Surely that kinda power would improve our chances." Everyone's in silence from the stupidity of what he just said. It's obvious he's doesn't realize the flaw in this plan. "Why're you all staring at me like that?"

Aidan: "Gee, Chris, I never would've thought about that. Here, let me just call up the Maidens right now. Oh wait! I can't! Because we don't know who the current Maidens are!"

Chris: "Whoa! What's got you all pissy?"

Aidan: "C'mon, Chris, did you really think that I haven't thought of that? If we went with that idea then it would take us forever to find them. The Maidens are always spread across Remnant and finding their identity's would be the most troubling part and in case you haven't noticed, that kind of time is what we don't have! We have to banish him before Croft finds out the seals are down which is most likely not much longer."

Chris: "Oh, right..." Tyler just facepalms.

Makayla: "We just have to give it all we've got."

Aidan: "Exactly. Just like we always do. Which is why we need to rest up for tomorrow." They all just nod and Chris, Makayla and Tyler leave. "This is gonna be one hell of a party." Meanwhile in Shades courtyard Mom, Connor and Paris are speaking amongst each other.

Paris: "The God of Darkness... What do you suppose he's like?"

Angel: "Probably beyond anything we've ever seen."

Connor: "Well, he IS literally titled the God of Darkness, so he's most likely just as evil as he sounds."

Paris: "From what I heard, all of humanity use to be able wield magic and he's the one who took it from them. All except for Salem and Ozma and their abilities were inherited to their children."

Angel: "It'll take all of us to accomplish this."

Connor: "Yes. But Croft still stands in our way. There's a high possibility that we'll end up fighting him before we can reach the God."

Paris: "To think that a great Huntsman like him would turn traitor."

Angel: "I'm sure Yin is affected the most by this. After all, he is her father. I can't help but feel bad for her."

Connor: "And since Celena is her team leader, then this affects her as well."

Angel: "I can definitely feel a strong emotion of determination from them though. Their just like Team ATMC in their school days, always facing danger head on despite their inexperience. They are still willing to risk their lives for Remnant."

Paris: "Of course. After all, that is what makes a true Huntress. Celena definitely takes after both of you, Angel."

Angel: "Heheh. She certainly does."

Connor: "She really has grown into a strong warrior. But that's no surprise from my brother."

Angel: "I'm really sorry we kept you secret from her."

Connor: "It's ok, I understand. I admit, I can be a bit difficult but I know when I can change for the better." Well, it's seems like they're getting along. A silence is in the air for a sec.

Paris: "It's getting late. I suggest we get some sleep for tomorrow." They all agree and go their separate ways." Finally, Masters is on the school rooftop looking over the Kingdom. Eventually his daughter finds him up here and joins him.

Gretel: "Oh, there you are."

Masters: "Gretel... What are you doing here? I thought you already went back to your quarters."

Gretel: "I was until I saw you weren't there. You know you make me worried sick with how many times you sneak off without telling me!"

Masters: "Haha. I guess it is kind of becoming a habit of mine."

Gretel: "So, what're YOU doing up here?"

Masters: "Hmm. Just enjoying the view of the Kingdom. It's not exactly as breathtaking as the one of Vale but Vacuo still has some form of beauty to it."

Gretel: "Agreed."

Masters: "But then again, the entire world has a sort of beauty to it. Even some of the more sinister places like the Domain of Darkness."

Gretel: "The same place I'll be heading for tomorrow."

Masters: "Yes. I hope you realize that it won't be easy, as you still have the Black Blade to handle."

Gretel: "Yeah... we may end up fighting Raven before we end this."

Masters: "Raven Croft... That ones a real mystery. Even I don't know that much of his history. All I know is that he lost his wife, Robin, due to severe illness when his child was still young. But that's all the Huntsmen archives has recorded in his history aside from his school years. Not even a scrap of his childhood."

Gretel: "His Semblance AND his Inner Demon make him a very powerful enemy. He'll be a tricky one."

Masters: "Yes. But I'm sure Project Guardian will pull it off."

Gretel: "Heh. Thanks, Dad. Well*yawn!*I'm gonna go get some sleep. Goodnight!" She leaves and he continues to enjoy the view.

Masters: "I hope your watching, Stacy. Our daughter has grown so much. Please, lend her your strength for this upcoming battle. She's going to need it."


	16. Inner Demons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

It's the next morning and the alarm clocks goes off. Thanks to Dad being the Headmaster my team gets excused from class today but it's just for this mission since it concerns us. The four of us get up and prepare ourselves and the Goddess wakes up the moment the rest of us are ready.

G. Celena: "Mmm!" Stretch it out. "Good morning everyone."

Celena: "You ready?"

G. Celena: "Yes. I just need to reserve my powers for the spell. I'll be relying on you and Project Guardian to assist."

Celena: "We'll try to live up to your expectations."

Yin: "Alright. We're all ready to go."

Nya: "C'mon. We don't wanna be late for the briefing."

Alice: "Next stop: the Headmasters office!" We all head for the Headmasters office and everyone's already there when we arrive.

Aidan: "There you are. Are you girls ready?"

Celena: "Mmhm. The Goddess is all rested up."

Aidan: "Good. Now, before we go I just wanna remind everyone that there's a chance we'll be encountering the Black Blade while we're out there. Specifically, Croft and Devon, who still have these 'Inner Demon' things."

Angel: "Yes. And from what we saw their just as powerful as a Spirit Guardian and can attract Grimm. The negativity emanating from them were through the roof."

Paris: "Things will be bad if we run into them. We need to conserve our Spirit Guardians power to help Celena complete the spell."

Masters: "Now hold on there, Paris. I do hope your not implying that you need your Guardians to fight them."

Connor: "Masters is right. The Spirit Guardian is not needed to fight another Guardian, it just means your on equal footing."

Chris: "Except these aren't Spirit Guardians. Far from it."

Gretel: "Maybe. But despite their differences I did notice our gun fire and other ground attacks actually inflict damage to them rather than phase through them. This means their solid when summoned much like the Guardians."

Aidan: "I realize some of you are more prone to relying on power but no matter what happens, absolute NO use of the Guardians until we get to the pool."

Nya: "Professor Verde? I have a suggestion. Why not just have everyone hand over their Bracelet until we get there? From what I recall the Bracelet is needed to summon these things."

Masters: "In other words. No Bracelet, no Guardian."

Aidan: "Hm. Not a bad idea." He takes out a small bag that straps to your belt. "You heard her guys. Hand over your Bracelets." They all do so. Some are hesitant but they realize the circumstances and hand it over anyway. When he counts all seven and closes the bag He activates a halo screen and keyboard on his bionic arm. "As for me, I have to turn it off since mine is built into my arm. Aaaaand done! Now that that's taken care of, let's be on our way. Just remember to keep the Goddess safe at all times. She won't be able to use her powers to defend herself since she needs to preserve all of her power." We all head for the launch bay, board a ship and take off. Everyone double checks their gear cause without the Spirit Guardian, their gonna need it.

Tyler: "We're approaching the Domain of Darkness. But the radars picking up large amounts of dark energy."

G. Celena: "It's my Uncle. His dark aura has spread across the domain to protect himself. If we enter in the airship it'll cause interference with its system and we'll crash."

Gretel: "And what if we enter by ourselves?"

G. Celena: "Not to worry. Your Aura's should protect you so long as you are thinking negative thoughts. Any thoughts of hatred, violence, vengeance, or morbid. I myself will not be affected as I am his kin."

Aidan: "Sounds easy enough. For now it'll be best to land at a safe distance."

Makayla: "I think I found something else at a safe distance." Dad looks out the side window Aunt Makayla is at. "Looks like we're not the only ones here." It a black airship!

Aidan: "The Black Blade. They must be here to check up on the seal."

Yin: "It'll be bad if Papa finds that it's not there anymore. We have to act fast."

Tyler: "I found a good spot a good distance away from the field and their ship. Prepare yourselves for landing!" The ship lands, we all exit and make our way towards the domain. We can most definitely expect an attack from the Black Blade though so we already have our weapons at the ready.

Alice: "It's way to quiet..."

Nya: "Exactly..." Then I hear a gun cock and ready my blades. Next thing I know I block an incoming bullet with a single side slash. We all look in the bullets direction.

Celena: "Well, you're certainly not the sharpest tool in the shed, are you?" They walk towards us and it's Devon.

Devon: "You better know your place little girl! I'm still leagues above you in experience!"

Connor: "Maybe above her, but the same can't be said about the rest of us."

Devon: "Oh please! I don't care if your an army! I'll take you ALL on!" He comes charging at us.

Aidan: "Scatter!" Everyone splits up and goes in from multiple directions but he seems to be holding up on his own with as quick as he is. Even so this can only last so long before he's overpowered and eventually pushed back towards a tree. "As predictable as ever."

Devon: "Why you little-!" His Aura glows and Victorian appears. "Kill them all!" It comes at us and spreads a barrage of orbs of dark energy. The orbs go a little slow so everyone could either avoid or destroy them and then all those with guns, being me, Dad, Makayla and Tyler, run around it in circles and fire while Paris uses his fans to cast various magic arts on it and Connor uses his Semblance to launch ice spikes at it. Meanwhile the remaining fighters, Yin, Nya, Alice, Mom, Chris and Gretel, face Devon. The fighters are fairing well against Devon, but Victorian is being a bit difficult. Every so often it fires a laser from its face but that didn't stop our formation. What DID stop it was it spreading a wave a energy when it outstretched its wings pretty quick and that wave knocked us off our feet. It then came towards me but Dad blocked it with his Broadsword, to which he knocked it back...

Aidan: "Tiger Blitz!" And then proceeded to uses its chainsaw function to slice its wing off with that art. Then he switched to his Scythe. "Lotus Flower!" Which cut it's head off to de-spawn it. This didn't go unnoticed my Devon.

Devon: "Noooo! You BASTARDS! I'll have to wait a whole day for it to fix itself!"

Tyler: "Way to give away how your powers work!"

Devon: "Wait what-! NO! Dammit! Just wait! You'll get yours... TURNABOUT TERROR!" Dad switches to the Morganna Sword to block his attack and after breaking the hold he switches to the Twin Blades to keep up with Devon's speed. "Grrr! That's it! DIVINE STATE!"

Gretel: "What the-? How does he know that technique?"

Paris: "He and I were your fathers pupils while you were comatose. Masters taught us this for failsafe situations though."

Makayla: "This IS Devon we're dealing with. Since when did he care about stuff like that."

Devon: "DIIIIIE!" He comes for Dad but Uncle Connor intervenes and blocks his attack.

Connor: "Not happening buddy! I suggest you stand down!" Devon breaks the hold when he jumps back and prepares his Divine State technique: Xth Cross. Using the his broken knife and the blade on his gun he sends an X shaped energy slash towards me, Dad and Connor. But Connor created an ice dome at the last second before the cross hits. Upon its impact the dome shatters and a dust cloud spreads. After the dust clears they see that we're still standing.

Devon: "Wh-WHAT!?"

Connor: "My turn!" He enters his own Divine State and uses his own technique: End Blade. Using his sword to pass by him with a single slice, Devon stands still after the strike while Connor slowly sheaths his blade and when its fully in is Devon when drops to his knees in pain as his Aura gives out. "I told you to stand down."

Devon: "Ngh! Damn you! Fuck this, I'm out of here! This is Raven's plan, he can handle this himself!" He uses a smoke bomb to escape.

Tyler: "Ugh! Dammit! He got away!"

Aidan: "Leave him! He's not important right now. We need to stop Croft from reaching the God of Darkness. C'mon." Then I noticed that the Goddess was hiding behind a nearby tree.

Celena: "Hey, it's okay. You can come out now."

G. Celena: "I was not expecting an ambush like that. But I couldn't risk using my powers to enhance my natural senses."

Celena: "Hey, don't worry about it. It can't be helped."

Yin: "She's right. Because Devon and his Victorian aren't the real challenge. From what we've seen of him and my Papa the other day, comparing them shows that Papa and his Tri-Edge are the real issue."

Paris: "You would be correct. Not just because of the difference in power, but Raven DID complete his Huntsmen training, meanwhile Devon abandoned his school duties after Gretel's recovery and thus expelled due to his criminal actions. Even if Devon had stayed in school, while it may not be a big number, Raven is Devon's senior by two years."

Angel: "That would make him senior to all of us as well."

Chris: "Not like seniority has ever stopped us before."

Aidan: "Yeah, I mean we fought the Merlot Twins and Masters, who were graduate Huntsmen, when we were still students. We've got this."

Yin: "Still, it's not Papa that really worries me... it's Tri-Edge. It was able to kill Professor Quartz with a single attack after her Aura was out and leave that mark in the floor."

Tyler: "Yeah. Despite her age at the time I know that Jade was a lot tougher than that. That's some serious power."

Makayla: "Something tells me Ravens apparent insanity doesn't help how powerful it is."

Nya: "Relax. After my observations from our encounter with it, I can tell its powers have a limited range. And thanks to Devon's little slip up earlier, we now know a sort of weakness that these things have. After completely destroying it the user cannot summon it for 'a whole day' as he put. My guess would be about the next 24 hours."

Chris: "But we've taken down these things before and they were able to respawn afterwards."

Nya: "Then it must be from a specific way. We saw that Professor Verde decapitated it to destroy it so it must be that specific way."

Alice: "Yeah, but something tells me that Tri-Edge won't go down as easily as Victorian did."

Gretel: "We're not gonna let that stop us though."

Alice: "Right!" We continue on to the Domain of Darkness and the walk was enough to restore our Aura from the last fight before we have to face what's waiting for us at the entrance of the domain... Raven Croft. Still in his outfit from our last encounter but no longer wearing his mask. His head is completely exposed and he has his back turned to us.

Raven: "So... Devon was useless in stopping you after all. I had expected him to lose to you all at once even with his Inner Demon. Hm?" I don't need to ask to figure out that he's noticed the Goddess with us. Though he can't possibly know it's her on account of her human form... right? "And just what do you think your doing here with the Goddess that placed the seals. She shouldn't be here if you don't want me having her." And he did realize it.

Celena: 'At least he doesn't know the seals are gone.' "How did you know it's her?"

Raven: "It doesn't take an dunce to connect the dots that this girl wasn't with you before the tower and now she is with you after. Who else could it possibly be?"

Yin: "Papa, please! You don't have to do this! Please, just drop this and come back with us!"

Raven: "You might as well just save your breath, Yin. I've already made up my mind. The multi-verse will soon be mine."

Aidan: "That's enough. You say it'll be yours? I say were here to make sure that doesn't happen. Your days of villainy are over, Croft!" Drawing his Morganna sword.

Raven: "Heh... Correction..." Drawing his own black sword. "Your days are over... Turnabout Terror!" Finally turning to charge right at Dad and clashing swords with him. The rest of us jumping back to scatter and surround him.

Celena: "Celena! You need to hide! We'll handle this..."

G. Celena: "Of course!" She takes cover behind a nearby rock. Dad and Raven are still in a hold.

Raven: "Grr! I will personally see to it that you and everyone you ever cared for will forever suffer when I rule!"

Aidan: "Sorry to burst your bubble... But that ain't happening!" They break the hold and continue clashing their swords until the rest of us join in but Raven knocks us all back with ease. But regardless of how many times we're knocked back we keep getting back in to try and hold our own against him.

Raven: *pant, pant*"I'll give you one thing, you are all INCREDIBLY tenacious!" His Aura glows. "Tri-Edge!" No matter how many times I see it I can't help but let my mind sink in fear of how terrifying it is, but I can't let that stop me from fighting.

Paris: "I suggest we not use heat based attacks on it."

Connor: "Way ahead of you!" Using his blade for an icy uppercut.

Paris: "Rue Kruz!"

Alice: "This sounds like my kinda plan! Single Storm Twin Technique: Vacuum Wave!" The wind was enough knock Tri-Edge to the side. Meanwhile Dad and most of the other fighters are still facing Raven.

Nya: "Single Storm Twin Technique: Wild Thunder!"

Raven: "Nice try!" He used his sword to deflect her electric attacks.

Nya: "Dammit!"

Chris: "Eat fist!"

Raven: "I don't think so!" Sending an electric wave at him but...

Chris: "Ha! Your gonna regret carrying an elemental weapon!" Charging for him and hitting him with a punch that sent him flying into a tree but immediately got back up to be stopped by Mom who drove her sword into the ground and ran a circle around him which trapped him in a ring of fire but his armor helped him walk out with ease. He and Mom kept clashing swords afterwards and with his deadliness he has almost hit her but her Semblance of phasing through stuff came in handy but he did end up grabbing her and threw her aside. Tyler and Makayla came his way with Tyler attacking up close with his fire clones and Makayla staying at a distance with her assault rifle but Raven managed to power through Tyler's clones and after breaking a hold with Tyler he shoved him so hard that he sent Tyler flying into Makayla to knock her off her feet.

Raven: "You annoying little PEST!" Entering the Divine State. "Demise Claw!" He used his claws to create a large X shape in the ground below Tyler and Makayla, the claw marks then started to glow a fiery orange, Gretel then got close and put her shield beneath them, making it big enough to act as a platform for all three of them, and the glow from the marks meant it was erupting a geyser of flames that would've completely wrecked their Aura if they took the full force of it but Gretel's shield helped them survive. The worst they got was that since they were standing on Gretel's shield they were instead launched into the air but thankfully Connor used his ice power to catch them and help them slide down to the ground safely rather then take unnecessary damage from the impact of landing from a fall that high.

Connor: "Phew! You guys okay?"

Gretel: "Yeah... barely."

Raven: "Why you little-! Gah!" Dad came in and knocked him back with his Broadsword and then switched to his Twin Blades to face Ravens claws and when he broke out his sword, Dad then switched to his Scythe.

Aidan: "We've wasted enough time with these guys! Divine State!" Since he's wielding his Scythe, his Divine State technique would be Plasma Blade, where he jumps high into the air holding his Scythe overhead and then sending a large energy slash towards the ground and when it hit Raven it exploded upon impact. When Dad lands and the explosion clears out Ravens Aura gives out. "It's over Croft!"

Raven: "It's not over till I say it's over!" Dad then switches to Death and Rebirth.

Aidan: "Judgement!" Three shots and the final charged shot launched Raven towards a nearby cliff wall. "Chris!"

Chris: "Way ahead of you! Celena, mind giving me a hand?"

Celena: "I see where your heading!" I use my Semblance to slice up some of the cliff into large chunks and once I'm done, Chris punched the wall with enough force for the chunks I cut up to fall off and land atop Raven, trapping him there. Since he's struggling in there he can't focus on keeping Tri-Edge solid so it de-spawns. "Phew! That should hold him for a while."

Aidan: "Yeah, but not forever. We need to get to the pool now." G. Celena then comes from behind the rock she took cover behind.

G. Celena: "Remember, just think negative thoughts as you travel through my Uncles energy field."

Aidan: "Right. And now that both Devon and Croft are out of the way it's time that you take these back." He opens the pouch from earlier and hands everyone back their bracelet and as they put them on he reactivates the function in his arm. "Everyone ready? Then let's go." And we all head into the Domain of Darkness hopefully for the final time.


	17. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own RWBY, all rights to RWBY go to Rooster Teeth in honor of its creator, Monty Oum

So far so good, as they've made it through the field. As they approach the pool, the field dissipates and a figure slowly emerges from the dark fluid, the same purple figure Celena saw in the astral space... the God of Darkness.

Dark: "Well... your seal didn't last very long, my troublesome niece." It was easy for him to notice G. Celena was here with his sense for power. She then reverted to her standard Goddess form. "And I see you've taken a liking to surrounding yourself with foolish mortals. Including the parasitic mortal from the other night." I knew he was referring to me. Especially since he was looking my way... or is he just looking in random directions? It's really hard to tell when their faces are blank.

G. Celena: "They are not foolish, Uncle! These are extraordinary warriors who are willing to risk their life's for Remnant!"

Dark: "Is that so? And why would you dare bring these warriors to me?"

G. Celena: "Because your days in Remnant are over!"

Aidan: "Everyone get into forma-" We feel a sudden quake and turn to see where it's coming from. We see a bright orange glow from the entrance and then an explosion.

Tyler: "Ah, shit! It's Raven!"

Raven: "Haaaaaaagh!" He used whatever strength he has left to summon Tri-Edge again and break out of the rubble. "You're not doing anything with MY ticket to power! Tri-Edge! Hold them there!" Tri-Edge sent some sort of black energy our way but before it reached us I shoved my teammates out of the way and Dad used his grapple hand to grab G. Celena and toss her out of the way. That was done in only a second before the energy hit and formed a pitch black dome over all of us with G. Celena, Yin, Nya and Alice outside of it.

Yin: "Celena! No!"

Nya: "Celena! Professor!"

Alice: "Guys! Are you okay?"

G. Celena: "I don't think they can hear us... If their trapped like this then we can't cast the spell!" Then Raven showed up, he used Tri-Edge to help him fly and close the distance from the entrance to the pool in mere seconds.

Raven: "There! Now that that's taken care of... it's time for my plan."

Dark: "My, my... what a strong power for a mortal."

Raven: "Why thank you, my liege." Inside the dome all of us are in a panic and it doesn't seem like anyone outside can hear us. Chris keeps punching the wall and every punch spark up sparks of electricity

Chris: "Argh! Damnit Raven! What the hell is this!?"

Gretel: "Damnit! We were so close!"

Paris: "Everyone calm down! We need to stay diligent!"

Tyler: "And how're we suppose to do that!?"

Angel: "My goodness... this energy... it's overwhelming..."

Aidan: "Celena! Are you alright?" At this point I can't hold it in anymore and so I start crying. "Celena?"

Angel: "Hmm? Sweetheart, what's wrong?"

Celena: *sniff*"I just can't believe it! After everything we've been through to get this far! I actually thought we were gonna win this battle!"

Makayla: "You say that like you've been through this for years."

Celena: "I guess I just got way to into this on account that I'm just a student..."

Aidan: "Sweetie... There's a lesson to be learned here: and that's that nothing in life is ever easy. We never said that this was going to be easy because we knew that this would be hard. There's always going to be a setback in the Huntsmen life. But one should never let that stop them. You just gotta keep moving forward..." I feel like those last three words are very important words that have been said for many years by many people, but regardless, he's right.

Celena: "Yeah... thanks, Dad." Suddenly Dads arm and all seven Guardian Bracelets start glowing and a stream of energy comes from all of them and then flows into me and my Aura, which is pure white, starts glowing like crazy! "Whoa! What's happening!?"

Gretel: "Wait! This feeling... I don't believe it!"

Aidan: "Gretel's vision..." Then my head starts hurting and I hear a voice in my head.

?: "So, it seems that you finally realize the truth of the world. Not everything can be done the easy way. However, the hard way is always the more rewarding in protecting the ones you care for. As a reward, I will continue to aid you in your journey for justice."

Celena: "Ngh! Heh... Very well... Your right... Time to put in more effort! Isn't that right?"

?: "But of course. Then with that, let us commence with the forging of our contract at once." I feel a surge of powerful energy within me. "I am thou, thou art I... Thou who shalt never lose thine own hope again and use thy sense of justice to use this power wisely. Thou shalt now have my blessing to continue on and gain a second chance!" The intense glowing stops and the Bracelets stop glowing as the pain in my head subsides. I then activate this new power which makes my Aura glow again.

Celena: "Everyone get down!" They all do so and the glowing gets blindingly bright. Meanwhile outside the dome.

Dark: "So you really think you can get what it is you wish?"

Raven: "Hell yeah! And there's NO ONE that can stop me-!" Then he hears a crack in Tri-Edges dome and looks to see more cracks appear in seconds, each crack comes with a light shining through it, until the dome completely burst and a blinding light takes its place, knocking Tri-Edge back and forces everyone else, including G. Celena and Darkness, to shield their eyes. When the light clears, I'm standing proud with a new figure by my side: my own Spirit Guardian, taking the appearance of a grey skinned woman in a blue robe held together with a black belt, and she's also got long, straight black hair, light blue glowing eyes, and is backhand wielding dual katanas. The others get up and face Ravens direction with me.

Dark: "Hm? What's this now?"

G. Celena: "This power... it's just like the Spirit Guardians... but how?"

Raven: "What the hell is this!?"

Celena: "Raven Croft... it's time that we put an end to this."

Raven: "And what makes you think that this thing will make a big difference?"

Celena: "Because I will never give up. Even if I fall, I WILL keep moving forward!" I draw my Senshi. "Yin! Nya! Alice! You still good to go?"

Alice: "Hell yeah!"

Nya: "Of course!"

Yin: "You bet, love!" They all draw their weapons and come to my side.

Raven: "You foolish little girls! You are NOTHING compared to me!" He draws his sword and Tri-Edges power intensifies.

Celena: "Dad? You guys get Celena and cast the spell. Team CYAN will keep Raven busy. Hopefully we can buy you enough time."

Aidan: "But Celena-" Connor stops him.

Connor: "Bro... Let her do this. Believe in her. We cannot afford to waste this chance." He seems hesitant at first but then nods and turns towards the G. Celena.

Aidan: "Hey! You ready for this?" She just nods and comes to their side and Dad just turns his head to face my team while we're still facing Ravens direction. "We'll be counting you guys."

CYAN: "Right!" We all ready our weapons.

Celena: "I can feel it... myself... me! Yes... I will not lose heart again... I'll keep fighting to the bitter end. Right, Kusabira?"

Raven: "Grr! I'll take you ALL on!" The fight is on as the four of us fight him all together while Kusabira keeps Tri-Edge busy. Project Guardian then turn to the God of Darkness whose just been standing there this whole time.

Aidan: "Now then. Where were we?"

Dark: "I believe it's time that you DIE!" His voice growing more deep and sinister as he enters his dragon form from the other night. He then swipes the ground with his claw and they all back away to avoid him.

G. Celena: "Everyone scatter! You eight need to form a circular formation around him!"

Aidan: "Were on it! You heard her, form a circle!" They all do so as they avoid all of the Gods attacks.

G. Celena: "Now! Summon forth your power!"

Aidan: "Right!" Everyones Aura glows. "C'mon... C'mon!" The glowing intensifies.

All 8: "I am...!" Getting brighter. "We are...!" Blinding the God. "Right Here!" Summon!

Gretel: "Corbenik!"

Connor: "Tarvos!"

Makayla: "Macha!"

Chris: "Gorre!"

Paris: "Fidchell!"

Tyler: "Magus!"

Angel: "Innis!"

Aidan: "Skeeeeiiiiith!" All of their Guardians spawn at once and use their powers to create a beacon of energy that towers all the way to Remnants shattered moon. Then G. Celena flys above her uncle and uses her powers to hold him in place which is part of the spell.

G. Celena: "Guys! Focus your powers into elemental beams and fire at me! I will harness that energy to complete the spell!" They all do so and Fire elemental beams from their hands.

Gretel: "Light!"

Connor: "Ice!"

Makayla: "Wind!"

Chris: "Earth!"

Paris: "Lightning!"

Tyler: "Fire!"

Angel: "Mind!"

Aidan: "Energy!" The power is absorbed into her and she focuses it all into her own beam she's firing downward towards her uncle.

Dark: "Urgh! No! What are you doing!?" As he reverts back to his humanoid form.

G. Celena: "Putting an end to this war between Light and Darkness! It's time that Remnant lives in peace from your awful reign!" 'I'm sorry to do this to you Uncle... but you left me no choice! And father... forgive me for doing this!' The God starts floating off the ground as G. Celena stops firing her beam and slowly traverse through the beacon. Meanwhile we're still facing Raven and surprisingly haven't lost yet. In fact I think his insanity has gotten to him much like how Devon has and he's slowly lost his instinct to strategize. Then he notices the God of Darkness slowly going up the beacon and is in shock that it was working despite not knowing what exactly their doing.

Raven: "No! NO!" Then the God just shoots straight up the beacon at the speed of light and when he reaches the moon a bright light flashes for a second and when it clears, G. Celena floats down to the ground and collapses in the center of the ring of the exhausted Huntsmen who were also collapsed on the ground. "NOOOOOO!" While he's distracted, Tri-Edge struggles with Kusabira until eventually she's finds an opening to decapitate it and make it de-spawn for a whole day. Raven then drops to his knees, sticks his sword in the ground, bring out his claws and starts scratching the ground repeatedly like crazy until he stops and is looking down at the ground on all fours. *pant, pant*"Damnit... Damn you! How could I possibly lose to a bunch of LOSERS who cheated the Huntsmen system!"

Nya: "Is that seriously what you think!? Everything they did was approved by Professor Quartz and General Ironwood!"

Alice: "Yeah! I bet your just jealous of them in particular because you didn't get to save the world with them back in school!"

Yin: "Yeah, that sounds about right for my Papa, if I can even call you that anymore!"

Celena: "You've had this selfish desire to hunt for power and rule the multiverse just to prove that your better than the ones who overcame your fame. Your no Huntsmen... your just a joke!"

Raven: "Heheheh... Hahahaha...! AAAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Yin: "P-Papa?"

Raven: "Shut up... Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!" He grabs his sword and starts attacking again. Using his umbrakinesis even more now that Tri-Edge is out. The four of us keep fighting and we are slowly warring down his Aura.

Twins: "Double Storm Twin Technique: Double Storm Swift Strike!" Yin manages to use her whip to yank his sword out his hands before the strike hits so he can't use it's electrical capabilities to protect himself from it. The strike hit but he powers through and attacks both twins with his claws infused with his dark powers until me and Yin attack him and the twins get back up to join in. We're overwhelming him pretty good but he used his Divine State from before and this time we can't rely on Gretel to save us from the geyser of flames, so I use Kusabira's powers to form an orb like barrier around us and it worked, the flames didn't hit us.

Raven: "Grrr! You annoying brats just don't know when to quit! I'll kill you all!"

Celena: "I don't think so! Guys!"

Twins: "Right!" They stop his attack and launch him into the air.

Celena: "Yin!"

Yin: "Way ahead of you!" She tosses me the other end of Icicle and whips me into the air and I preform my usual technique with a big difference added this time.

Celena: "Trying to escape by blade?!" I transform into a streak of light and use rapid slashes. "Walk forth to the ever approaching moonrise..." But this time, when he hits the ground, Kusabira preforms her own technique called Hassou Tobi, where she hits him with a eight slash attack that leaves a blue glowing 8 way cross mark on the ground and once that's done, I land and finish it like usual. "Distant Frontier!" He screams in pain as his Aura finally gives out. I turn to face him as he gets up and grabs his arm in pain. "It's over Raven. Just retract the claws and surrender peacefully." Theres a silence in the air for a moment.

Raven: "Heheh... Surrender peacefully? It's clear that you don't know the kind of person I am, young Celena..." He jumps into the air and lands next to where his sword landed when Yin tossed it, and he takes it back and sheaths it. "The Black Blade WILL prevail!" Once again, he drops a smoke bomb and is gone when it clears.

Alice: "Argh! Dammit! He got away!"

Nya: "Yeah. But I get the feeling that's not the last we'll see of him."

Yin: "That's my Papa for you." Speaking of fathers, that's when Dad and the others finally wake up.

Tyler: "Oh, man... What happened?"

Paris: "I feel like we just wasted our energy to claim victory over a Wyvern."

Gretel: "Ah! What about the God of Darkness? Did we succeed in banishing him?"

G. Celena: "Yes. I can no longer sense his presence here. The spell is complete." Everyone celebrates with cheers and stuff like hugs or high fives. That's when a silver light shines and when it vanishes, the God of Light is standing before us. *gasp*"Father! What are you doing here?"

Light: "I simply came to congratulate you on your victory. I know I wouldn't have been able to banish my own brother myself as I was always scared too, but I know doing so would make it so our battle wouldn't cause Remnant anymore problems. It would seem that you've made some great friends, Celena."

G. Celena: "R-Really? D-Do you really think so?" Aw! Look, she's embarrassed.

Light: "I know so. And as for you, Project Guardian and Team CYAN. You showed great bravery to stand up to my brother today. You all have truly earned your titles as Huntsmen and Huntresses. But I do fear that your troubles are far from over."

Chris: "I'll say, what with the Grimm still here."

Yin: "I believe he's mostly referring to Papa. He got away."

Makayla: "Yeah, that IS troublesome. With both him AND Devon still out there, the Black Blade will remain strong."

Connor: "Yes, but thanks to our efforts, they now have a massive dent in their objective."

Tyler: "And if they start causing trouble again, then we'll be ready for them."

Angel: "Yes. Because no matter what..."

Aidan: "...We'll keep moving forward, just like every legend before us."

Light: "Then I bid you good luck. Come now, Celena. You must be exhausted."

G. Celena: "Well, I guess this is goodbye. But remember: I will always be watching over all of you." We all just nod and when she takes her fathers hand, another light engulfs them and they disappear. Thats when we head back for the airship and head back to Vacuo and when we get back, we obviously rest up. The next day, me and the others continue our schooling, Connor takes and passes the exam for his Huntsman license, Tyler heads back to Menagerie, Connor heads back to Mistral, Paris heads back to Atlas, Makayla, Chris, Masters and Gretel head back to Vale, Mom continues the Guardian Bracelet class for this year and Dad continues his new duties as Headmaster of Shade, as he spoke with the other three Headmasters about the details of this case and with that, the charge against the Black Blade grew more seriously. After school today, while the others went back to the dorm, I decided to visit Professor Quartz's grave.

Celena: "We did it, Professor Quartz. We pulled off an unbelievable miracle. But our troubles are still far from over. But I'm sure you can rest in peace knowing that your assailant won't be getting what he wanted. And even more so when we eventually catch him. And as for wherever you are right now... Heheh. I'm sure your enjoying every moment you've missed with you grandfather. Am I right?" I swear I almost saw Jade in the sky looking over me as I look up. "Heh. Well. Wherever you are, you'll always be here with us in spirit."

The end!


End file.
